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I saw old Cecrops' town and famous Rome;
But David's holy place I liked best:
I saw dire sights before I found my home,
But much the direst at the town of Pest.

It was a goodly city, fair to see;

By its proud walls and tottering mosques it gave A delicate aspect to the country,

With its bridge of boats across the Danube's wave.

Yet many things with woe I did survey;

The streets were overgrown with spiry grass; And, though it was upon a sabbath-day,

No bells did ring to call the folks to mass.

The churchyards all with bars were closed fast,
Like to a sinful and accursed place;

It shew'd as though the judgment-day was past,
And the dead exiled from the seat of grace.

At last I met an sad old man, and asked

Where a tired traveller might find repose.

The old man shook his head, and would have passed;
But I caught him by his arm and held his clothes.

"Stranger," said he, "in Mary's name depart!"
So saying, would again have passed me by:
His hollow voice sank deep into my heart,

Yet I would not let him go, but asked why?

"It now is morn," quoth he, "the sun shines bright, And the spring is blithe, save in the walls of Pest; But, were it winter wild, and a stormy night,

Not here, oh stranger, shouldst thou seek to rest.

Though rain in torrents poured, and cold wind blew,
And thou with travelling tired, and with hunger pale."
"Though the sun," said I, "shine bright and the day be new,
I will not go till I have heard thy tale."

This woeful wight then took me by the hand:

(His, like a skeleton's, was bony and cold.)

He seemed as though he could scarce go or stand,
Like one o'er whom full fourscore years had roll'd.

We came together to the market-cross,

And the wight all woe-begone spake not a word,

No living things along our way did pass,

Though dol'rous groans in every house I heard.

Save one poor dog that walked athwart a court,
Fearfully howling with most piteous wail.

The sad man whistled in a dismal sort,

And the poor thing slunk away, and hid his tail.

I felt my very blood creep in my veins;
My bones were icy-cold; my hair on end.
I wished myself again upon the plains,

Yet could but that sad old man attend.

The sad old man sat down upon a stone,
And I sat on another by his side:
He heaved mournfully a piteous groan,
And then to ease my doubts himself applied.

Stranger!" quoth he, "behold my visage well,
And grasp this bony hand so thin again!
How many winters, thinkest thou, I tell ?"
I answered doubtingly, "Three-score and ten,"

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Stranger! not forty years ago I lay

A puling infant in my nurse's arms :

Not forty days ago two daughters gay

Did bless my vision with their dawning charms.

"Yet now I am an old and worn-out man, And every drop of blood hath left my veins; Also my daughters twain lie cold and wan And bloodless, bound in death's eternal chains.

Stranger! this town, so pleasant to our sights,
With goodly towers and running streams so fair,
Formerly tender maids and doughty knights
From all Hungaria's land the prize did bear.

"But now the very few that here remain
Are sobbing out their breath in sorry guise;
All that might fly have fled this mournful plain,
But only L who wish to close my eyes.

"Seven weeks are gone since our townsfolks began To wax both pale and sad, yet none knew why: The ruddiest visage yellow seemed and wan,

Our stoutest youths for

very

cold did cry.

"Some doctors said the lakes did agues breed ; But spring returning would the same disperse, While others, contrary to nature's creed,

Aver'd the heat itself would make us worse.

"And though we laugh'd at these, like doaters fond,
Or men that love in paradox to deal;
Yet, as the sun grew warm, throughout the land,
All men the more did wintry shiverings feel.

"One miserable wight did pine and wane,
And, on the seventh day gave up the ghost;
His corse was open'd by a surgeon of fame,
Who found that every drop of blood was lost.

"Nathless, our people, though they pined and pined, Yet never did our appetites decay;

Whole oxen scarce sufficed when we dined,
And we could drink whole hogsheads of Tokay.

"Some hundreds every day gave up the ghost,
Else we a famine in the land had bred;
And to repay the blood that we had lost,

Our beasts we kill'd and ate, but never bled.

"Thus, by the eve, our colour fresh arose,
And we did look again more brisk and gay,
All night deep slumbers did our eyelids close,
But worse and worse we woke at break of day.
"There was a tailor, Vulvius by name,

Who long had dwelt at Pest in honest pride;
A godly man he was esteemed by fame,

And since some twelvemonths of a fever died.
"Now when at last this strange disease had grown
To such a height as ne'er was heard before,
Among the rest in our unhappy town

My youngest daughter was afflicted sore.
"One night it happen'd, as she sleeping laid,
Her waiting girl at midnight left the room,
To fetch some posset, broth, or jelly, made
To quell the plague that did her life consume.
"When, as she softly shut the door, she heard
A heavy thing come lumbering up the stairs;
Whereon the buried tailor soon appeared,

And she, poor maid, full loud 'gan say her prayers.

Shrouded he was, as when his corse was laid Under the earth, and burial service read; Nor yet was he a ghost, for his footsteps made A noise more heavy than a ton of lead.

"She saw him ope my daughter's chamber door, And had no spirit to pursue or fly,

And Vulvius again, in half an hour,

Lumbered down stairs yet much more heavily.

"This story heard, I could not chuse but smile
To think the silly maid such fears could shake,
Yet the next night, to prove such phan'sies wild,
I kept myself until midnight awake.

"When as the midnight-hour was past, I heard
A heavy thing come lumbering up the stair;
The tailor Vulvius to my sight appeared
I could not follow to my daughter fair.

"Next day unto a convent nigh I hied,
And found a reverend father at his prayer;
I told him of the wonders I had spied,

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And begged his ghostly counsel I may share.

Together to Saint Stephen's church we went And he a prayer on every gravestone made, Till at the tailor Vulvius' monument

We stopped-we brought a mattock and a spade. "We dug the earth wherein the tailor lay; Till at the tailor's coffin we arrived,

Nor there, I ween, much labour found that day, For every nail was drawn and the hinges rived. "This sight was strange-but stranger yet remained When from the corse the cered clothes we tore; The veins seemed full of blood, the lips distained, All dripping with my daughter's new-suck'd gore. "When through our town this sight we had proclaimed, A dismal horror chilled our townsmen's hearts; The VAMPIRE (so our priest the tailor nam'd)

Their midnight sleep disturbed with feverish starts.

"The churchyards straight were ransacked all throughout With pickaxe, shovel, mattock, and with spade;

But every corse that we did dig thereont

Did shew like living men in coffins laid.

"It was the corses that our churchyards fill'd
That did at midnight lumber up our stairs;
They suck'd our blood, the gory banquet swilled,
And harrowed every soul with hideous fears.

"And now the priest burn'd incense in the choir,
And scatter'd Ave-Maries o'er the graves,

And purified the church with lustral fire,

And cast all things profane in Danube's waves.

"And they barr'd with iron bolts the churchyard-pale
To keep them out; but all this would not do;
For when a dead man has learn'd to draw a nail,
He can also burst an iron bolt in two."

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THE PIRATE'S TREASURE.

boy was mortal afraid to venture; but the captain swore he would make him, and in his passion took him a rap with the iron-rod, and killed him. When he saw what he had done, he lifted, and hove him over the side; and many a long day the men wondered what had become of little Bill, for they were all below at dinner, and none but myself saw the transaction. It was needless for me to complain, and get him overhauled, as there were no witnesses; but I left the ship, and births would be scarce before I would sail with him again."

AFTER many months of anxious and painful expectancy, I at length succeeded in obtaining my appointment to the situation I had so ardently wished for. Despairing at my apparent want of success, I had given up all hopes, and had engaged to go as surgeon in the Clydesdale to the East Indies, when the favourable result of my friend's exertions changed the aspect of my affairs. My instructions set forth the necessity of my being at Surinam by a certain day, otherwise I should be too late to join the corps to which I was appointed, which, on the ceding up of the place to the Dutch, was to proceed to Canada. As it wanted only two months of that period, it became necessary to inquire for some vessel without loss of time. Giving up my engagement with the Clydesdale, I proceeded to the harbour, and after a toilsome search, succeeded in discovering a ship chartered by a Glasgow company lying ready at the west quay, and to sail with that evening's tide. While I stood examining the vessel from the pier, two sailors, who seemed to be roaming idly about, stopped, and began to converse by my side. "Has the old Dart got all her hands, Tom!" said the one," that she has her ensign up for sailing? They say she is sold to the lubberly Dutchmen now what cheer to lend her a hand out, and get our sailing-penny for a glass of grog?" "No, no; bad cheer!" replied the other; "mayhap I didn't tell you that I made a trip in her four years ago; and a cleaner or livelier thing is not on the water! But there is a limb of the big devil in her that is enough to cause her to sink to the bottom. It was in our voyage that he did for Bill Burnet with the pump sounding- For four weeks we had a quick and rod, because the little fellow snivelled pleasant passage. The Dart did not a bit, and was not handy to jump when belie her name; for, being Americanhe was ordered aloft to set the fore-roy-built, and originally a privateer, she al. It was his first voyage, and the sailed uncommonly fast, generally run

Knowing what tyrants shipmasters are in general, and how much their pas sengers comfort depends on them, I was somewhat startled by this piece of information respecting the temper_of the man I purposed to sail with. But necessity has no law! The circumstance was probably much misrepresent→ ed, and, from a simple act of discipline, exaggerated to an act of wanton cruelty. But be that as it might-my affairs were urgent. There was no other vessel for the same port-I must either take my passage, or run the risk of being superseded. The thing was not to be thought of; so I went and secured my birth. As my preparations were few and trifling, I had every thing arranged, and on board, just as the vessel was unmooring from the quay. During the night we got down to the Clock light-house, and stood off and on, waiting for the captain, who had remained behind to get the ship cleared out at the Customhouse. Soon afterwards he joined us, and the pilot leaving us in the returnboat, we stood down the Forth under all our canvass.

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