fact, but we hope in a prophetic spirit: "Les this overflowing of poetry, science, thought, Irlandois, ne le cèdent plus aux Anglois, ni en and enthusiasm ceased, he would relapse into industrie, ni en lumiéres.”

the deepest and most silent melancholy. Nothing could rouse him from it. A mild and constant smile alone denoted in him the motion From the Book of the Hundred and-One. of life. It was during this lethargic tranquilTHE BLACK NAPOLEON. lity that you were struck with the muscular, power of his thickset body, and with the fine "The present generation must expect to be form of his shoulders, arched and moulded like encumbered with sons of Napoleon, in rivalry those of an antique statue. He was shortwith false Dauphins. Each fallen dynasty has scarcely five feet four; but in such men, the bequeathed to us its glorious illegitimates, and head is the body. His was of a size prodigiits counterfeit descendants. ** Popular belief ously out of proportion with his bust, although is fed from such doubtful sources; and, provided the latter was very large; whilst his thin and the nose or the mouth bear some faint resem- nervous legs were like those of all the Orienblance to the same features in the ex-sovereign, tals, without exception, inhabiting the borders the dress does the rest. *** of a desert. His head displayed the largest ce

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"This preamble shows, by anticipation, the rebral developement ever seen in a European, little desire I have to seduce the credulity of together with the finest characteristics of an the reader, and my indifference whether or not African. His nose, boldly aquiline, hung over he share in my conviction. I am only anxious, lips more natural than delicate in their form. by the simplicity of this narrative, and the au- His chin turned up a little too much, which thority of the dates, facts, and names, which I gave to the lower part of his face an enervative adduce, to inspire him with a little confidence. and somewhat monkish expression. But it was impossible not to pass over this defect, when "During the moments of leisure between the you perceived that which justified his claim to thousand prodigies which have made the Egyp-a resemblance of which he was proud. His tian campaign a poem, or a fairy tale, Napoleon, eyes, of a transparent and dazzling blue, indithen called Buonaparte, formed acquaintance cated that mental superiority with which God with the dark Egyptian girls, beautiful, submis-now and then invests certain men, to prove to sive, and passing their lives upon the sand, or the levellers of all ages the untruth of equality upon sofas, their imaginations excited at the among mankind. The fascination of his eye sight of a man, who projected his shadow, like dragged you within the vortex of his will, a huge pyramid, from Cairo to Upper Egypt. where you were forced to remain and encoun"I agree with the world, that it is a prodi- ter the shock of his emotions, and the concusgious thing to have conquered the English, the sion of his mental excitement. His eyes, which Mameloucs, the plague, the ophthalmia, thirst, you wished you had never seen, and which it and the Desert; and they will surely agree was impossible to forget when once you had with me, that there is nothing extraordinary in come within their influence, flashed fire; and Napoleon leaving a descendant. I grant the the dark orbs which encircled these two burnmarvellous;-concede to me the possible.-ing mirrors, enabled you to comprehend at what Grant me that Napoleon had a son in Egypt, price God sometimes bestows genius, and what and that this son was a half-caste, short, form-constant suffering he kindles in those hearts ed like his father, and copper-coloured like his which serve as its altars. From this descripmother. tion, which my feeble pen has left so imperfect, "When I left school in 1824, I was acquaint- the reader will be reminded of the noble couned at Marseilles with a young Egyptian, twenty- tenance of Napoleon, which will be handed six years of age, named Napoleon Tard*** A down to the latest posterity. It is one of the certain identity of political opinions, and the family portraits of human nature. same taste for solitude, soon cemented a strong "Your idea of Tard*** would be incomplete, friendship between us. All the disadvantages if you forget that he was a half-caste. Upon of our intimacy lay on his side; for I drank his huge, thick, and hard skull was stretched a deep of knowledge from his conversation, and tanned skin always in perspiration. The straight he instructed me in the Greek and Arabic lan-hair of the Corsican fell over two large, flat, guages; rendering his lessons truly delightful and primitive ears. His was the frame of Naby recollections of his travels in Nubia, Ethi-poleon, covered with the skin of Sesostris. opia, and across the Jordan-by vast original "Let those who comprehend Napoleon's misinformation-and by those views which you sion upon earth, who know what energy he cannot derive from books, because books are derived from the Corsican, Genoese, and Flomutes, and have not the animation of gesture, rentine blood mingled in his veins, measure, if nor the flash of the eye, nor the music of the they dare, the confusion into which the same voice, nor the quivering of the muscles. His man would have thrown the social economy had memory, which he pretended he had lost, was he been born in Africa, his veins swollen with encyclopedical. If you asked him for a word black blood, galloping naked upon a horse withhe would give you a volume. When he spoke, out a saddle, pointing with his sword to the I more than listened, I read. But the moment west, and showing it to his people, as a tamer

of wild beasts would show a quarter of fresh would fade and merge into the hue of sadness, meat to a lion;-moving men not with ideas of which like a cloud descended from his brow, independence and glory-which symbols have Here again was to be seen the deep thought of no meaning but among old nations rubbed Napoleon, so admirably represented in the picsmooth with worn-out civilization-but with ture of the battle of Eylau. *** miracles in deeds,-lengthening the desert wherever he passed,-realizing the unity of empires by death, and universal peace by silence,--leaving in each conquered city a flame for ensign, and fire for a garrison.

"Let us use the privilege of poetry, and suppose for a moment that Napoleon's legitimate son, the Duke of Reichstadt, had realized some of those sublime hopes dreamt of by those who idolized his father,--by men enthusiastic enough "The consciousness of his high birth and to adore Napoleon as a prodigy, and thoughtless two-fold origin, now kept Tard*** in a state of enough to dishonour his renown, by supposing sombre preoccupation. As soon as our intimacy that the same greatness could exist a second warranted every kind of confidence, he con- time by the mere force of descent; let us supstantly talked to me of his mad projects in the pose, that the political fetters so well and so East. The East is mine,' he would say, 'as adroitly fixed around the existence of the Duke the West belonged to my father Napoleon. of Reichstadt had burst of themselves, and that will state my descent, my name, and my pro- the son of Napoleon, as a soldier at St. Roch, jects; I will place myself at the head, not of an artillery officer at Toulon, and a General in the Turks, but of the Arabs. The former have Italy, had earned the right of leading our ar run their race. With the Arabs I will restore mies to the plains of Egypt, whither we had the civilization of the Ptolemies. I speak their sent them a second time to obtain that which language; I belong to their race; I am of their was there sought by his father-namely, a sun blood; and they will listen to me. I will call warm enough to dry the blood-stains of another each city, each town, each hamlet, each man, revolution-(for after civil murder, glory must and each child by their several names. All will be won; the alternative must lie between excome to me; and the Nile, and the sands of the ternal war, and the public executioner at home); desert, and the winds shall roll towards Cairo-let us suppose this, and who knows if Proviand Alexandria as did the armies of Cambyses. dence would not have placed face to face, two The cross of the Cophts, and the three colours principles sprung like Oromasis and Arimanes, shall operate new prodigies. I will do for Egypt from the same origin, and have revived for us that which my father had not the generosity to incredulous people those mythic beings, who at do. He wanted it only as a road to India, in- first, under real human forms, lead men in stead of making it independent. Egypt shall herds to some act of regeneration, whether of with me and by me, be free; free by my sword, blood or of fire, and who, after they disappear, by the cross, and by the three colours. No more become moral truths like Typhon, Isis, and beys, nor pachas, nor slaves. Freedom, as in Osiris? Why should not this young prince, the time of the Caliphs, will I establish. See this legitimate son of Napoleon, have promoted you this casquette?' he continued; 'I will place that eternal tendency of Europe to obtain posit upon the pinnacle of Mecca. Until that time, session of Egypt, for the purpose of making an it shall never quit my possession; then shall easy road to India, the cradle of human civilicivilization revolve round it. Then shall we zation? And why should not the young Egyptopen our libraries;--then shall we call to us ian, the illegitimate son of Napoleon, have science now enslaved in old Europe. It shall represented that want, already felt by Africa come to us from Germany, and Italy and Spain. The Arabic of the Caliphs, the Greek of Plato, and the Latin of Tacitus, shall run through the streets of Alexandria. Then shall the light again come from the East, and the prophecies be accomplished!'

"And I have seen him, full of these strange ideas, full of projects of conquests, gallop haltnaked upon the sand along the sea-shore, calling with his strong and sonorous voice upon the nations who dwell upon the banks of the Nile, the borders of the desert, and skirt the mountains of Ethiopia, waiving his hand in the wind as if balancing the scimitar, and shouting in Arabic, Ye people and nations! behold the son of Kebir !'

under its Mameloucs and its Pachas, of shaking off the besotted yoke of the Sultans! It would have been a wonderful spectacle for mankind to see two men sprung from the same fatherone pale as Europe, the other bronzed like Africa-meeting under the curve of their sabres in their first march towards eath other, asking each other's name, and each replying, Napoleon !'

"Yes! I believe in the existence of an energetic and divine power, produced by the meeting of certain syllables and of certain numbers. Without unfolding the mysteries of the Cabal, I believe that these two names, forming but one, would have aroused from their sleep of stone, Alexandria, and its pharos, and its bazaars, and "Then stopping on a sudden, he would re- its arsenals, and its towers, and its nine hunsume the mild and constant smile which I have dred thousand inhabitants. I believe that the already noticed, whilst the upper part of his powerful breath of this double apparition would face assumed the most perfect immobility. In- have dispersed the fine sand which now wears sensibly the colour which his enthusiasm and away so many noble monuments of granite; violent excitement had raised upon his cheeks that in lieu of this dust, would have sprung up

columns and capitals hewed out of the petrified | "Tired of the delays caused by the refusal date-tree, and all that population of statues of his two uncles-respectable merchants, one formed from the natural productions of Egypt. of whom had been several times elected mem"Egypt only produces statues made from its ber of the national representation-to advance sand, and sand which is made solely from its him money for his intended voyage to Egypt, statues. Nothingness and form come and go Tard*** complained of their parsimony. He alternately; to-day there is a pyramid, to-morrow could not understand their refusing him the a few heaps of sand. The Great Desert is but money necessary to take possession of the a collection of pounded cities. throne of the Caliphs. These worthy merchants, without denying the august descent of their nephew, would have preferred adding him to their establishment as a book-keeper, to seeing him a Pharoah I., an Aroun, or an Abasside. They therefore declined to supply him with funds for such a purpose.

"But let us quit the field of hypothesis, and return to the reality of my narrative.

"One day, as I was walking with him on the

"Tard*** added to his powerful energy of character, the most simple pursuits, and much innocence in his amusements. He was passionately fond of flowers. A sunset in the bosom of our Mediterranean, threw him into extasy. His oriental life always swam upon the surface port of Marseilles, he began to play with a small of the habits he had acquired in Europe. He knife, about two inches long, which he held beused the bath and perfumes to excess, and when tween his fingers; he then begged me to wait the heat of the weather was great, the veil of for him a moment. Returning in a short time, drowsiness threw over his eyes that languor he said, shutting his knife, I have just dispeculiar to the women of the East, as well as patched my two uncles for America-which to lions and tigers. means, in your language, that I have just killed them.'

"Before we proceed further, I must state that Tard*** was mad, but his madness was "At the same instant, two gendarmes innothing more than a philosophical monomania. creased my astonisment and stupefaction, by It was so whimsical that it would not be worth arresting, with these words, the expeditive nerecording, did it not unravel the dénouement phew:-'In the name of the law! Napoleon of his life. I know not from what course of Tard***, you are our prisoner:-you have murreading or study he had imbibed his system, but dered your two uncles!'

"He proceeded to the scaffold without fear, and without a murmur, deeply impressed with the idea that he could not die, because his body was immortal as well as his soul. He displayed only that smile, half sinister and half lovely, which I before mentioned.

he believed neither in the mortality of the soul, "On his trial at the Assize Court of Aix, nor in the mortality of the body. Death, so far Napoleon Tard*** swerved not from his chaas he could define it to me, he seemed to con-racter. But his metaphysical monomania on sider a mere change of country, a forced jour- the subject of death did not save him. *** ney from one place to another. The man murdered or presumed dead at Paris, would be found at Berlin or London. He positively denied a total disappearance. Thus, he said he had met Somewhere walking together, Rousseau and Raynal, Buffon and Linnæus; and according to him, grave-diggers were sinecurists, and ceme- "He must, moreover, have been well pleased teries a farce. With such a system of belief, at seeing such an abundance of fruit and flowers aided by the officious resources of logic, murder as were collected at the place to which he was was in his eyes only a forcible expulsion from taken. For the place of execution at Aix is one country, and a sentence of death only a embalmed twice a week, with all the vegetable passport to other climes. I believe that this wonders of Provence-the Delta of Southern fatal extravagance of belief may have proceeded France. The Nile is not more lavish of its from an accident which readily admits of an gifts than the Rhone and the Durance. He explanation, but which made a lasting impres- thought, no doubt, that these perfumes were sion upon his mind. During his childhood, and for him. Without a cravat, his neck free, and on the occasion perhaps of some insurrecrion his eyes brilliant and sparkling, he walked in favour of his claim to the throne of the Pha- through the crowd as if he were taking a stroll rohs, he had stabbed a camel-driver at Cairo. in the country. He would have been content Some years after this murder, or rather this had he been allowed a carnation in his buttonduel, he met, or thought he met, the same man hole, and a switch in his hand. at Aleppo. Now, whether the camel-driver was the victim of the application of his system, or the first cause of his error, I am not prepared "In the glowing beams of a sun-shine in to say; for I never knew. Be that as it may, Provence, the imperial head of the victim fell Tard*** positively denied the mortality of the by the knife of the guillotine, and the blood of body. Napoleon stained the pavement.

He was in the market-place of Aix, and on a market day.

"He had attained to that age when the con- "One day, when the executioner came to trast of a precarious condition, with gigantic Marseilles, to purchase a better blade, and two views and hopes in after years, cease to be in stronger planks, a certain young man whom I equilibrium. The poetry, which had kept his may be allowed not to name, received a casmind within bounds was fast disappearing. **quette, as the dying bequest of Tard***.

"It was the one which was to have crowned ] ed by 'Heaven.' But I will first give a prethe minaret at Mecca, and rallied the civiliza- ceding one. tion of the East."

THE PILGRIM'S FAREWELL TO THE

"For we have no continuing city, but we seek

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ECLECTIC one to come." Heb. xiii. 14.

1. Farewell, poor world, I must be gone:
Thou art no home, no rest for me.
I'll take my staff and travel on,

"Till I a better world may see.
Why art thou loth, my heart? Oh why
Do'st thus recoil within my breast?
Grieve not, but say farewell, and fly
Unto the ark, my dove! there's rest.
3. I come, my Lord, a pilgrim's pace;
Weary, and weak, I slowly move;
Longing, but yet can't reach the place,
The gladsome place of rest above.
I come, my Lord; the floods here rise;

Fair world? Oh! no, thy beauty's gone,
An heav'nly Canaan, Lord, I crave.
Thus ancient travellers, thus they

Weary of earth, sigh'd after thee.
They're gone before, I may not stay,

"Till I both thee and them may see.
7. Put on, my soul, put on with speed;

Though th' way be long, the end is sweet.
Once more, poor world, farewell indeed;
In leaving thee, my Lord I meet.

"When shall I come and appear before God?" Ps. xlii. 2.

TO A SNOW-DROP.

ART thou some blossom snowed from moonlit skies, White-marble petall'd, pure as air-dropt snow? Art thou some vestal seen by Grecian eyes? Some swan upon Ilissus moving slow?