I had feen in the morning on the ftrand, and which I supposed interred!-Stretched on the livid corfe lay an aged perfon, whom I must have deemed lifelefs, if the deep fighs that efcaped from his heavy heart did not indicate the contrary. A lamp, fixed to the wall, faintly illumed this abode of grief and of death, which, befides the dead body expofed to view, feemed to conceal others; as the earth in feveral places appeared to have been recently opened. I cannot find words to exprefs the impreffion made on my mind by this forrowful picture. The death-like filence; the accents of deep defpair; the old man kneeling, with his head inclined over the body, firmly grafped in his arms, while his hoary locks blended their colour with that of the corfe; and in a dark corner, the very fpectre originally feen, and ftill continuing to exhibit the fame fingularity of appearance, feeming fometimes to rife to the arch of the cavern, and then to whirl fpirally in the air; these united objects excited in my mind a fenfation, not diftinctly of horror, or of terror, but which participated of both, and kept me in a diftreffing state of mind, and in painful fufpence. At length, this apparition appeared to float in a luminous vapour, and I thought I diftinguished the pale, but interesting features of a young man, who undulated as if he had been rocked by the waves, the gentle murmuring of which I imagined myfelf hearing at the moment. This part of the fcene had in it nothing of a fhocking description; on the contrary, I felt as it were refreshed by a cooling breeze; and experienced a pleafing emotion in beholding this fhade, which feemed to balance it felf in a filvery fluid, refembling the reflected rays of moon-light. At that moment, a foft and melodious voice was heard, chaunting the pfalms and prayers for the dead, and a young woman, clothed. in fhining white garments, entered the apartment. She knelt, and without feeming to obferve me, fhe continued her melancholy frains, which had the effect of gradually rouzing from his le.. thargy the old man, ftretched over the dead body. Carlos. Carlos! exclaimed he in a mournful tone, his hollow eyes be coming at the fame inftant rivetted on the vifion I have been de fcribing, and which he furveyed without any mark of furprize or emotion. On attentively examining the appearance of the body he had held in his arms, his features affumed an expreffion of contempt, and he bitterly gave vent to his feelings. Thou art not Carlos! this body which I fnatched with difficulty from the waves is not, it feems, thine. Listen to me, Camilla !' continued he, taking hold of the hand of the young woman, I fallied out, calling on the name of Carlos, in the dead of night. My voice mingled with the howling of the tempeft. I imagined that, loud as it raged, my cries were heard far and wide on the main, and that the guardian angel of my Carlos had. triumphed over the fury of the ocean; and alfo that, by his pow erful aid, the remains of my fon would be depofited on the beach, to enable me to commit them to the tomb ; but, alas; they are ftill the fport of the waves, and obferve-obferve how they tor: ment him . . . . .' My "The apparition, on this, became quiefcent, and the old man, turning towards me, on feeing that I fympathifed in his for row, faid, I am fatisfied that it is the good angel of Carlos that has directed your fteps hither, to allay the fufferings of his aged father. Alas! the French have affaffinated my fon; for, after taking him prifoner, they put him to death in cold blood, without once afking him if he had a father. They then ftripped the body, and threw it into the fea. Ever fince, his lamentable wailings awake me in the middle of the night, calling on me to obtain the rights of burial for my fon. I then fly to the fhore, in expectation of finding the body caft up by the waves. I embrace, I carry off a dead body. Alas! alas! it is not his! Thrice have I been cruelly deceived, and how often may I not again be deluded by defpair? How often, after preffing the remains of a stranger to my bofom, am I doomed to be undeceived by the bloody fhade of Carlos, who has just appeared to me toffed about by the waves?' On obferving Camilla weeping, as fhe liftened to him, he directed his difcourfe to her. poor child, you weep because I weep, you groan because I groan. You participate in my fufferings; you refpect my grief; you do not fpeak to me of your own forrow; you do not tell me how bitterly you lament the death of Carlos, thy defined husband;, you hide from me the agonies of your broken heart, and even force a fmile when the hand of death is on you, to foothe the dreadful tranfports of the grief which poffeffes me. Poor, un fortunate girl! your decay is as rapid as mine; your youth declines with my advanced age, and, leaning on each other, we are both finking into the filent tomb. Thy voice calls me back to life; its devotional accents renovate my exhaufted ftrength; it difpels the delufion which furrounds me; it banishes the phan toms which befet me; and when I listen to it, I feem to be bleffed with heavenly vifions. O! my child! beings pure as thou art, adminifter unfpeakable confolation; and their minds are made by divine Providence the depofitaries of an emanation of celeftial goodness, intended to affuage exceffive grief, under which the human frame would otherwife fink.' The old man then made me a fign to follow him, and we quitted this difmal place, conducted by Camilla, who gently led him away.We then entered an apartment hung round with white, and which had no other ornament than a portrait furrounded with white rofes, and reprefenting a handfome young man, habited in the uniform of a Captain of the Spanish army. The looks of the old man, wildly directed towards the picture, convinced me that it was the portrait of Carlos. Camilla threw down her eyess F BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXVII. JAN. 1811, eyes, being either unable to bear the fight of these adored features, or being restrained by bashful timidity from contemplating the image of an intended husband. "A venerable prieit, who was praying fervently on our entrance, rofe up haftily to falute the old man by the appellation of brother. Well, brother! has it pleafed the Almighty to hear our prayers?' The old man fat down, remained immoveable, and his vacant and fixed looks indicated the dark despair which had full poffeffion of his heart. Camilla fignified by a filent motion of her head, that the unfortunate object of their cares ftill remained without confolation. His features foon affumed the appearance of tranquillity, or rather of that ftupor which fucceeds to violent fits of frantic grief, and to the wanderings of loft reafon. He raised himself like an infant, who is attempting to walk. Camilla fprung forward to fupport him, and these two wretched beings, who by turns foothed each other's forrows, quitted us with that inattention, which marks a mind oppreffed by feverity of fufferings," As our limits will not admit us to give a translation of the explanatory conversation which paffed between the Baron and the Priest, an abstract of it may prove fufficient. The holy Father, on being informed of the appearance of the fpectre, enters into a religious differtation on the fubject, and is of opinion, that traditions, and fome refpectable authorities, feem to favour the fuppofition of their occafional appearance. He, however, leaves the fubject exactly where he found it, involved in myftery and uncertainty. He informs the Baron, that Don Carlos, a youth of promise and accomplishments, became a Captain in the armies of Spain; that he was made a prifoner in defending a gun, which the enemy endeavoured to get poffeffion of; that the enemy, under an erroneous impreffion that fome French prisoners had been put to death, inhumanly, as an act of retaliation, murdered Carlos, and threw his body into the fea; and that his father receiving at the fame inftant a letter from his fon, ftating his brilliant career to military glory, and another mentioning his death by a cruel execution, became, as defcribed, immediately bereft of his fenfes beyond every hope of recovery. The Baron de Geramb feems to poffefs a talent for animated and flowery compofition; and he would render a fervice to the caufe of civilized fociety were he to employ his pen in exciting the Cortes to exertions, imperiously demanded to meet the decifive campaign of 1811. BRITISH BRITISH CATALOGUE. POETRY. By Mrs. ART. 11. The Peacock at Home, and other Poems. : When the BUTTERFLY burft from her chryfalis state, When the GRASSHOPPER'S minftrelfy charm'd every ear, The chief fault of all this is the lofs of that air of ease and familiarity which graced the former exordium. The chryfalis, though very instructive (perhaps), is a hard word; fete is French; and the whole is too much fpun out. The Dragon-Fly makes no found whatever, and therefore is ill introduced. The "Goffip" fhould be changed for the CRICKET, which is meant ; and then no note would be required to explain it. The peacock's harangue is enlarged, we think, without effect. The change of begun into began, in the introductory lines, was indeed required by grammar. "Coufin Turkey-Cock, well may you quiver with paffion," is a picturefque improvement. The following lines are new. "Some bird of high rank fhould his talents exert F 2 This This fhould be, for the conftruction's fake, And the Ostrich,-a bird who on iron is wont To the rest we do not much object, except as making the speech lefs abrupt and more elaborate. In fome places, however, new ideas are neatly, and even happily introduced; and perhaps the whole poem may be confidered as improved, though certainly less than the author intended.. In the additional poems, which are twenty in number, we fee nothing that demands particular remark. Many of them turn on the peculiarities of animals, and are fo far inftructive for young perfons. They are all fhort. ART. 12. Gaftronomy; or the Bon Vivant's Guide: a Poem in four Cantos. From the French of J. Berchoux. 4to. 42 PP. 5s. Booth. 1810. The original Poem here tranflated, is a kind of offspring of the Almanac des Gourmands, and has been very favourably received in France. The tranflator has executed his work with fpirit; but in fome places he feems to have thought that the dif ference of manners would not allow of more than a kind of remote imitation. The following paffage, which we will give in each language, is a proof of this affertion. "Que j'aime cependant l'admirable silence, Chant. 2. p. 9. This paffage is thus rendered in the English edition :- A blight in the air, or a fervant's neglect, Eke out a short course, with but little effect And still worfe is the cant-" Pray your dinner don't spare, Re |