say that the object which kept together the assailants during the moment of attack being now gained, it will no longer prevent them from breaking out into discord again? The Vienna, and the Diet, and the Aula questions, may be settled, but is it not only to make way for the Magyar, the Sclavonian, the Servian, the Tzechian, and the Italian, lowering gloomily behind? Should Hungary succeed, straight snaps asunder the last link which binds her to the empire. Should the empire succeed, should Jellachlich at last be enabled to humble or restrain her, who can answer even in his despite, for the justice or the wisdom of the Imperial Camarilla, after such proofs of the puny intrigue, and Stuart-like faithlessness with which it played with events and nations, even against him? Is Austria prepared to listen to the call of Prague, and to set herself up as the Sclavonic Empire of Europe, expurging herself of Germanism and Magyarism at the same time? Who in the midst of such repellants working inwardly, can look with hope abroad for the iron hand of some Otho or Frederick to compress and consolidate her anew? Cohesion wanting, what other energy can supply its place? Where the centripetal is not, and the centrifugal is in such furious action, who can doubt, sooner or later, of the inevitable result? And in the breaking loose of this planet from its orbit, in the breaking up of this Austrian world into fragments and smaller worlds of its own, in the resolving into kingdoms, what now is empire, who may say how much, or what may fall to the lot of any nation or of any men? Here, as elsewhere, mind will command matter, and people for their own sakes, re-arrange themselves under some symbol, some guarantee of order, of permanence, of certainty--under chiefs or kings. Half of those who have become such in the history of mankind, have been long masters in the hearts of the people before they were written down in document or title-sovereigns. As Hapsburg began so may Jellachlich begin. The Ban-viceroy of Croatia is not stranger in sound or fact, than the Pasha-viceroy of Egypt, in a decaying monarchy, first its officer, then its rival, then one of its monarchs himself. In such a parcelling or promotion, an Illyrian, a Croatian, a South Sclavonian crown is quite as natural as a Prussian, a Westphalian, or a Hanoverian. Margraves and Electors are not better stuff for such dignities than Bans. And above all, it should be remembered, the cause has been, and is, Sclavonic and the head of Pansclavism, the Czar will take care that a member of the race, and virtually, if not nominally, his feudatory-" aura toujours droit."

Le premier qui fut roi, fut un soldat heureux !

says the poet. Few periods are more likely to give a new illustration of the aphorism than the present, few soldiers more fitted to justify it, than the Ban Jellachlich.

THE GIANTS' INVASIO N.*

BY JOHN OXENFORD, ESQ.

CHAPTER I.

THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE GIANTS IN BOHEMIA.

For

THE marriage of the good Eginhard, King of Bohemia, with Adelaide, the Emperor's daughter, was blest with two children. We have used this word "blest" rather in accordance with a common mode of speaking, than with any decided reference to the real truth of the case. although the daughter, hight Amelia, was all very well in her way, and reasonably good-looking, the son Frederic was as ill-favoured and illconditioned a cub as you would have disliked to meet in a dingy passage on a dark night. Moreover, although the term was not in use in his day, he aimed at being a sort of ultra "fast man." Had he lived in modern times, he would have pulled knockers off doors, and rang bells in the middle of the night; would have been perpetually in the stationhouse; would have ordered a pair of boots to be set down very dear in his father's bill, and have sold them for ready money very cheap; would have pawned his watch for petty cash, and when he wanted more petty cash, would have vended the duplicate to a friend-with a thousand little eccentricities highly annoying to parents and guardians, but exceedingly delectable to readers of police reports. However, this sort of "fun" would have been thought despicably small in ancient Bohemia, and the "larks" of Prince Frederic were on a very grand scale. Not only did he carry to a great extent a disorderly inclination to the fair sex, but he thought it pretty sport to burn down a village and ignite a convent or The peasants, when they saw their houses blazing about their ears, recollected how in former times Frederic's grandfather on the mother's side had entered Bohemia and laid waste the country; and they asserted, disapprovingly, that the Prince was a "chip of the old block."

two.

Even King Eginhard, who was a most indulgent parent, began to look serious when news came respecting the sixth Benedictine Monastery that had been burned by his son.

“I am afraid,” said he to himself, "that Frederic is getting into bad habits. One cannot expect too much steadiness from a high-born youth, and I have set down the burned villages to the account of wild oats.' But these attacks on the monks look exceedingly loose, and if I do not take care I shall get into some confounded squabble with the Pope."

"I am Yedon Yalki," said a voice in the court-yard, where the king sat reflecting, imagining that he was quite alone.

"Beg your pardon," said the startled monarch, looking up, and a good way up he had to look, before he could see the countenance of his unexpected visitor. A giant stood before him of such amazing stature, that he could peep over the walls of Prague without rising on tiptoe, and go down the longest street in eight paces.

I," repeated the giant, am Yedon Yalki, a chevalier from the Calmuck country," (this was a little beyond King Eginhard's geography), "the residence of the strongest people in the world. I have vanquished more than a hundred knights, crushing them to powder with the weight

*This tale is founded on (not translated from) a German popular story.-J. O.

of my fist.

man

fist. If I stamp, the whole earth trembles. If I but look at a

"Dwell a little less on your personal peculiarities, and come a little faster to the object of your visit," interrupted the king, somewhat impatiently.

"That," said the giant, with a business-like air; "is speedily stated. "We, Calmuck giants, simply request you will hand us over your kingdom of Bohemia without further ado."

"Upon my word," muttered Eginhard.

"Or that you will give us every year a young person (feminine) of royal race."

"A sort of tribute, like that of the Athenians to the Minotaur ?" insinuated the king.

"Of the parties you have just named, I know nothing," remarked the giant, drily; "nor do I see that an allusion to them helps our negotiation. In the case of your not accepting either of the alternatives we offer, some fifty of us intend to march into this paltry little city of Prague, and any attempt on the part of your forces to resist us would be perfectly ridiculous."

Having made his statement, Yedon Yalki deliberately curled his moustache with his finger and thumb, and awaited a reply.

"Vain boaster!" began his majesty of Bohemia.

"Stop a moment," said the giant, quietly; "I would fain remove the erroneous impression you seem to entertain." So saying, he took up the colossal statue of some old Czech, and playfully balanced it, with the head on his fore-finger, after which feat, he conscientiously restored the figure to its proper place.

"Well," said the king, "I admit that I was wrong, when I called you a vain boaster, and, by way of compensation, as you are certainly a well-built individual, I readily offer you a porter's place in the royal household."

"I, a porter ?—I, a porter?" thundered forth Yedon Yalki, " I, the Calmuck ambassador ?-Are you sober, little man of Bohemia? Doubtless, in this land, the liquors are stronger than the inhabitants."

"Then," said the king, "if you will not accept the place I condescend to offer you, tell your king-or your duke-or whoever it is that has the misfortune to govern such a troop of unwieldy cubs, that we will not give him an inch of this ancient and honourable territory, and that if his prudence be equal to his size, he will stop at home and vegetate in the Calmuck country."

This vigorous speech of the King of Bohemia really somewhat awed the big ambassador. Without saying another word, he stalked away through Prague, brushing off the tiles of the houses as he passed along, and took himself, as fast as his legs could carry him-which was no small pace-into the country of the Calmucks.

CHAPTER II.

SHOWING THE UNEXPECTED WORTH OF THE PRINCE FREDERIC.

THE king of the giants had a serious fit of illness, when he heard of the presumptuous defiance of the King of Bohemia. Of course, he did not give up the thought of invading the country, and as soon as he had recovered, he sent off Yedon Yalki, with a body of fifty giants under him,

who stationed themselves before the walls of Prague, much to the consternation of the citizens. Being thus beyond the ear-shot of his sovereign, Yedon Yalki began to make terms of his own, and promised the Bohemians that he would leave the country if the Princess Amelia were given to him as a bride. If this proposal were refused, he offered to decide the whole difference by single combat with any knight the Bohemians might select for their champion.

This last offer was a mere piece of bravado, as he never dreamed that a knight could be found valiant enough to encounter him, and he was perfectly astounded when a somewhat insolent messenger from the city told him that Prince Frederic, son of the King of Bohemia, would appear at one of the city gates at three o'clock on the following day, and engage in the single combat as proposed.

When the Romans fought the Sabines, the Sabine women were greatly afflicted, because they saw that, whichever way victory turned, it would be to their own disadvantage, and that they must lose either husbands or brothers. The citizens of Prague, who assembled on the walls to see the great fight between Frederic and the giant, were in a position precisely the reverse of that of the Sabine women. Whether the prince killed the giant, or the giant killed the prince, the land would contain one nuisance the less, and no spectacle could have been anticipated with satisfaction more unmixed.

When the scapegrace Frederic placed himself before Yedon Yalki, he cut such a ridiculous little figure, in spite of his fine armour, that the giant made the whole country echo with derisive laughter.

"I fight with such a whipper-snapper as that?" exclaimed the great Yedon, "why I should be the laughing-stock of all the Calmucks. No, indeed; but however, there is a fifth-rate giant in our troop here, who may perhaps condescend to knock out the young rascal's brains."

So saying he turned on his heel, and walked off with the greatest disdain, every now and then turning his head round, and looking at Frederic with a withering sneer that almost made the young scion of royalty dance with rage. However, his place was soon supplied by the fifth-rate giant, hight Rullweg, who also looked at the prince with contempt, but it was a contempt mingled with pity.

"So, youngster, you can fight with giants, can you?"

"I don't know, but I'll try," modestly replied the prince, and seeing the giant raise his club, he very prudently took his position among a clump of sturdy fruit-trees. The tremendous Yedon, had he been the combatant, would have torn up the trees by the roots, with a good fillip, but the feebler Rullweg banged about the trunks to little purpose, while the young prince dodged about them with infinite agility. Rullweg therefore changed his plan of attack, and struck the branches instead of the trunks, thus bringing such a shower of apples and pears about the prince's ears, that the latter was forced to quit his favourable position.

As there is no such thing as an unmixed character, so with all his bad qualities the young prince had one virtue. There was no knight in all Bohemia who could throw a knife at an adversary with greater force, or with more certainty. Now Rullweg, having got the prince into the open country, was so sure of his man that he fought carelessly, and the connoisseurs on the wall were heard to remark that his blows were dealt with more force than science. While he went lumbering about, Frederic took an opportunity of drawing a knife from his girdle, and flung it into

the giant's face, so that it stuck in his cheek, just below the right eye, and caused him such infernal pain, that he dropped his club, and hurried back to the camp. The Bohemians on the walls raised a shout of victory, and Frederic-for the first time in his life-found himself popular.

The Carthaginians used to crucify those of their generals who lost a victory, and a policy, similar in principle, though less harsh, was adopted by the giants. Any one of their number, who had been vanquished, was excluded from their society, till he had retrieved his laurels, and Rullweg, as a punishment for the very inglorious result of his encounter with Frederic, had to sit outside the camp all night, exposed to a remarkably cold wind, which made his teeth chatter, while it fortified his courage for the morning.

When morning came the giant returned to the place of contest, and the prince, dressed with increased splendour on the strength of his victory, came out to meet him. To prevent any of the knife exploits, the giant shielded his face with his mailed left hand, closely inspecting the movements of the youth between his fingers. He then flung his club at his assailant, and though he missed his aim, succeeded in upsetting Frederic's presence of mind, by the fall of the huge weapon. Closing upon him, in the moment of stupefication, he snatched him up from the ground, tucked him up under his left arm, and while he was fixed in that inglorious posture, administered to him several hearty boxes on the ear with his right hand, and delivered to him a strong lecture on the uncertainty of human affairs.

The giants seemed to be satisfied with this victory, for they all marched back to their own country, taking with them the Prince Frederic, whom they employed in the most servile offices, and corporally chastised when he did not come up to the proper mark of industry and diligence.

CHAPTER III.

SHOWING HOW LITTLE GOOD CAME FROM PORTUGAL, AND HOW MUCH FROM PICARDY.

THE people of Prague were in ecstasies of delight at the unexpected result of the combat. The giants had walked off, and had taken the ill-conditioned young prince with them-what could be more thoroughly satisfactory? But in King Eginhard the father was stronger than the politician, and far from being pleased with the disappearance of the juvenile, he sent out a bevy of heralds to inform the world that the hand of the Princess Amelia should be the reward of him who brought the prince back from the land of the Calmucks.

The first country in which this declaration seemed to make an impression, was one situated a good way off, namely, the kingdom of Portugal. The inhabitants of lands near Bohemia seemed to be deaf to the solicitations of King Eginhard, but at Lisbon they produced a great effect. Some chroniclers attempt to explain this anomalous fact by saying, that the Princess Amelia was the more admired the less she was seen,—but we dismiss the remark as illiberal and scandalous.

One Sir Louis of Lisbon, commonly called the Knight of the Laurel Wreath, was so marvellously attracted by the prize which King Eginhard had offered, that he presented himself at Prague as soon as the rate of travelling would allow, and undertook to accomplish the deliverance so earnestly desired. He was received in the most magnificent manner; Jan.-VOL. LXXXV. NO. CCCXXXVII.

E