"Can we not instantly pursue him?" I demanded, for now that I was assured of my personal safety, I began to yearn for my watch and purse. "We may save ourselves all that trouble," replied Boniface. "Since the disturbances began the gates of the town are closed every night, and are forbidden to be opened until half-an-hour after daylight in the morning. Leave it all to me. I know the officers of the police. I'll catch him! I'll catch him!" Ere my visitants, whom I cordially thanked for their prompt assistance, had returned to their beds, one of them apprised me, with a very unnecessary apology, that he had been smoking and drinking in the coffee-room, till a late hour, and having mistaken my door for that of an adjoining double-bedded apartment apportioned to himself and his comrade Arnheim, had made that noisy assault and battery which had rescued me from the very jaws of death. Detaining the landlord after the others had taken their departure, I repeated to him the words uttered by the assassin on his first entrance, which proved that he, Von Sandau, was the victim intended to have been thus ruthlessly slaughtered. "Describe the villain, describe him!" cried my auditor, who had listened to me with open mouth and staring eyes, and who had no sooner heard me commence the required portraiture, than he struck his hand violently on his knee, ejaculating, "Carl Richter! Carl Richter! I knew it-I could have sworn it-a thousand rix-dollars to a brass button it is the scoundrel Richter." This fellow. he proceeded to inform me, had lately been a waiter in his hotel, had been knocked down by him for insolence, had absconded, carrying with him a portion of the plate, had enlisted in the Yellow Regiment, deserting from which he joined Struvés banditti, committing various robberies and atrocities, and being hotly pursued, after the dispersion of those outlaws, had doubtless stolen into Augsburg, with whose hidingplaces he was well acquainted, hoping to find better means of concealment there than in the open country. Ere he could betake himself, however, to these haunts, he was encountered, close to one of the city gates, by his former master, who seized and gave him in charge as a deserter, when he was instantly hurried off to the guard-house prison. It was subsequently ascertained that in the confusion of changing the garrison, on the very evening of his arrest, he had escaped from his place of confinement, and betaking himself under cover of the night, to the stable-yard of the Black Eagle, had stolen, by means of the ladder, into the house, hoping to wreak his long-cherished revenge upon Von Sandau, and at the same time to carry off whatever valuable booty he could safely purloin. After the agitating scene of which I had been the hero (rather a cowardly one by-the-by), sleep was out of the question, so I dressed myself, the landlord retired to his room for the same purpose, and presently returning, we proceeded, to lay our plans for discovering and apprehending the fugitive, in the attainment of which object my companion displayed equal activity and acuteness. Long before daylight he had proceeded to each of the city gates, circumstantially describing to the officers on duty, the dress and figure of the delinquent, and quickening their vigilance by adding that he was a deserter. These precautions taken, he placed himself close to the gate at which he deemed it most likely that he should entrap his prey, and the result proved how ably his scheme had been concocted. Not ten minutes had elapsed, after opening the gate, when a freshly-shaved, squinting pedestrian, arrayed in a new Mackintosh and travelling-cap, attempted to take his departure from the city; in another ten minutes, so sharp was the look-out of the guard, he was lying handcuffed in the barrack dungeon! Two days afterwards, the landlord entered my room with a triumphant air, depositing on the table my watch and purse which had been found on the thief, informing me at the same time that he had been ordered to be shot that very morning as a deserter, and adding, while he rubbed his hands with manifest satisfaction, that he could get me admitted into the barrack-yard to witness the execution. As I have already recorded my invincible repugnance to the violent extinction of that mysterious emanation from God which is called life, even in the meanest animal and most insignificant insect, I need hardly state that I declined the proffered favour. Nay more, I will frankly confess, that when I heard the volley which terminated his mortal career, and recollected that I had been the chief means of thus hurrying him out of the world, the sound smote upon my heart, and thrilled me with a compassionate, not to say a compunctious shudder. That Providence often uses the meanest and most unexpected agents for the accomplishment of its purposes has ever been my creed. To use the words of Parnell, in his instructive poem of the "Hermit:" Its sacred majesty thro' all depends On using second means to work his ends. Following which train of thought, I mentally debated whether the flea, which, by keeping me awake, had played so important a part in the occurrences I have related, was commissioned by the good angel of Von Sandau to discover and bring to justice his intended assassin; whether it was appointed to its office by the evil genius of Carl Richter, in order to terminate his career of crime; or whether the ruffian's doom might not more truly be assigned to that universal Nemesis which ever pursuing the malefactor like an invisible shadow, finally dogs him to the dungeon and the gibbet. In the former of these conjectures there is nothing that need raise a smile, for if swarms of insects were made ancillary to the behests of Heaven in the third plague of the Egyptian nation, why may not a single insect become instrumental in the preservation or the punishment of a single human being? SARDINIA.* No country in Europe is so little known as Sardinia. Yet it is the largest island in the Mediterranean, not even excepting Sicily. When attention is called to it, vague ideas of mountains and marsh, of bandits and malaria, of tunny and sardines, and of Cyclopean structures, the last remnants of a primeval civilisation, are what present themselves to the mind. Yet, with the exception of what some few enterprising French archæologists did to unravel the history of the Noraghes and Sepolture de is Gigantes, the island, although in possession of the English in the early part of the eighteenth century, was in reality a terra incognita until explored by Captain Smyth. But still we had no well-informed traveller, no qualified observer to place on record the kind of information wanted by the tourist, as well as the knowledge sought for by the geographer, the naturalist, or the commercial man. Mr. Tyndale stands well in the long existing gap: to lively pictures of the manners and customs of the people, he adds notices of almost all the objects of real interest in the island, and he will make Sardinia and its resources, its curiosities and its scenery familiar as those of the Channel Islands, to all who will be at the trouble of perusing his excellent work. Government steamers ply between Genoa and Cagliari on the 1st and 16th of the month, and between Genoa and Porto Torres on the 8th and 24th; Mr. Tyndale sailed by the latter packet, but proceeded further on to Alghero, on the north-western coast. As the steamer rounded Cape dell' Argentiera, the highest and most westerly point of the island, some thirty Neapolitan boats were seen engaged in the coral fishery. These boats ought to be safe and fleet if the imitation of nature could ensure such advantages, for Mr. Tyndale tells us that in their form and cut of the sails, they resembled the nautilus, numbers of which were basking around, and spreading their transparent canvass to the light breeze. Shoals of dolphins and thousands of sea-birds gave further animation to the scene. Alghero is so called from the seaweed (alga) which accumulates in great quantities on the shore. Its history is replete with details of memorable and sanguinary engagements, which, as in the case of all the towns and strongholds of the island, Mr. Tyndale relates at length. In the present day, Alghero with a population of little more than 8000 souls, is surrounded by ramparts in a neglected state, defended by about forty old guns, ten of which are mounted, and in a very bad condition; the rest lying about in the grass and weeds which have grown around them. There are, however, several strong towers in different parts of the fortifications. Some of the streets are broad and well paved. The evidences of the Catalonian influence are fewer than might be expected, except in the lan The Island of Sardinia, including Pictures of the Manners and Customs of the Sardinians, and Notes on the Antiquities and Modern objects of interest in the Island to which is added some Account of the House of Savoy. By John Warre Tyndale, M.A., &c. 3 vols. Richard Bentley. guage and the formation of the houses, of which the balconies especially, reminded the traveller of those of Barcelona; but the costume is especially Sarde, the chaqueta, calzones, and manta of the Catalonians, being unknown. Although in comparison with other parts of Sardinia, the sanitary state of Alghero is considered good, it is exposed like all other towns and villages to the scourge of the island-that pestilence which made the Romans use the word Sardinia as a synonyme for death-and which is generally termed INTEMPERIE, an irregular combination of ague and fever, and a concentrated essence of Caliban's curse on Prospero. All the infections that the sun sucks up, This scourge is not confined to marshy and undrained lands, but exists also in high and volcanic districts, and its baneful influence is even not confined to the human race. The green figs of infected districts imbibe and evolve, it is currently said, the deleterious principle of intemperie, and it is hence customary to express the place of their growth on the baskets. The best coral and the best Sardine and anchovy fisheries are off the coast of Alghero, the former are better and more productive than those of the coast of Sicily. Among other marine productions for which the same coast is famous, is the Pinna flabellum, a bivalve shell of the muscle tribe, with a large tuft of silky thread, called lanapinna, which is wove into a web of a beautiful yellow brown, resembling the burnished gold on the back of some beetles, and of which waistcoats, gloves, &c., are made. A pair of gloves of this description cost 4s. 2d. a pair. Provisions are cheap, bread 14d. the pound, meat 1d. to 2d., fowls 4 d. each, and game equally cheap. The wines are also excellent and cheap. The state of society at Alghero is formal and vapid, from an inheritance of Spanish with a graft of Italian manners, without the polish which characterises the best society of those countries, and the listless inactivity of the inhabitants is said to impart a general lethargic aspect to the town. Mr. Tyndale made several excursions during his stay at Alghero and at Sassari, for the purpose of seeing a famous stalactitic grotto, called the Antro di Nettuno, but was unsuccessful, on account of the weather, this grotto being open to the sea; until the lucky circumstance of a visit in company with Charles Albert, crowned his wishes. Our traveller must, under these circumstances, have seen the cave in question to unusual advantage, a sketch, given as a frontispiece, presents to the eye a succession of vast chambers, with more stalactites than stalagmites, the watery floor being unfavourable to the deposition of the latter. At Adelsburg Mr. T. says the chambers are, in some parts, loftier, and the stalagmites more abundant, but neither Adelsberg, nor Paros, nor Antiparos, are, according to the same authority, so extensive, nor equal to it in elegance and rarity. While exploring one of the lovely camarettas of this natural wonder, the sublime, Mr. Tyndale informs us, was changed into the ludicrous, and the warmth of admiration chilled by some icy cold water in a hole at the bottom, into which the author slipped in good company-that of the Duke of Genoa-when assisting each other in the descent from the aperture which led into the said camaretta. In his various journeys to and from Alghero and Sassari, Mr. Tyndale varied his routes as much as it was in his power, the country being in main part a plain, covered with cystus, arbutus, and dwarf palms, the roots of the latter being eaten by the peasantry. There is, also, two miles from Alghero, a large, unhealthy lagoon called Caliche, from which a considerable quantity of fish is obtained. There are many noraghe, or primitive buildings in these districts, and Mr. Tyndale relates that his excursions to these in one case, caused much alarm to some shepherds, who, with their wives and children, were in an adjoining capanna, a hovel made of boughs, and who, not seeing his approach, were taken by surprise. The females and children were immediately hurried away, and the men, putting their long knives into their girdles, and assuming a ferocious air, demanded, in an impetuous voice, what he wanted. On assuring them that he did not come to interrupt them, but merely to see the noraghe, they sneered incredulously at him, but at length his cavallante having come up and explained that he was a stranger from terra ferme, and that he really had no sinister object in visiting them, their fears lest he should have been a government officer or a fuoruscito, both apparently alike dreaded, were dispelled, and they assisted him in taking the measurements of the noraghe. How alike are semi-savages in all countries, both in their feelings and their manners! The essential architectural feature of these noraghe or nurhags (and they are the most interesting objects in the island) are truncated cones or towers, averaging from thirty to sixty feet in height, and from 100 to 300 feet in circumference. These towers are built of stone blocks, varying in size from three to nine cubic feet, and disposed in regular layers, so that the style of construction cannot be said to be either Cyclopean or Pelasgic. These towers are further erected on natural or artificial mounds, like the tells or teppehs of the East, whether they occur in valleys, plains, or on mountains, and some are partially enclosed at a slight distance, by a low wall of a similar construction to the building. Added to this, they have low entrances, with architraves formed of gigantic blocks of stone, sometimes twelve feet long by five in height and depth, and in the interior are several domed chambers, sometimes with several cells or niches, than which nothing can be more like a sepulchral chamber. The section of the corridors which lead from one chamber to another, also attest the principle of the Dracontia, as shown at Abury and Carnak. It is amusing to peruse the variety of opinions that have been emitted upon the subject of these relics of olden time. Stephanini believes them to have been trophies of victory; Vidal, the houses of giants; Madao, the tombs of the antediluvians; Peyron, the tombs of the ancient nomad shepherds. Fara attributes them to an Iberian colony under Norax; Mimaut gives the same origin, and adds that they were tombs. Petit Radel, imagining them to be tombs, attributes those which have any irregular polygonal masonry, to the colony under Iolas and the Thespiada; and those in which there are only horizontal layers, to the Pelasgi and Tyrrhenians. Inghirami makes them to be funereal monuments, with a Tyrrhenian origin; Micali looks to a Phoenician or Carthaginian source, but does not suppose them to be tombs. Arri believes them to be Phoenician, and used in fire-worship; an opinion entertained also by Münter and Angius; Manno attributes them to the earliest primitive population, of Oriental origin, and thinks them tombs of different tribes: Arnim, the places of religious and mystical festivals, and in later times, burial places. La Marmora reserves his judgment, but implies indirectly that they were of Phoenician origin, and may |