his words,)" pity her if not the noble knight, nay, if not myself, who boldly avow my belief before this high assembly, that Lionel Biddulf is incapable of false hood, and hath either been grossly deceived, or else will substantiate the charges he hath advanced."

"Ha! peers the halcyon's beak in that quarter?" said Richard,." nay then, Walter, thou must e'en go wear the willow !"

Here the Lady Sybil herself arose, and with faltering steps approached the King. "Gracious prince," she exclaimed, her voice interrupted by emotion, "it were a crime in me to suffer pride or shame to keep me silent; albeit it is painful to speak on such a theme in such a presence -the Knight of Helmhurst, whatever his affection for one so worthless as poor Sybil Burghill, would to a worthy rival surrender me at his King's bidding, though the hearts of both broke in the instant!"

Richard, visibly touched, raised the lovely girl and spoke soothingly to her, as, drawing her veil over her face, she vainly endeavoured to conceal her streaming tears. The Archbishop of Canterbury then addressed the King

"Sire!" he said, "by your kingly and knightly oath, by your love for your subjects, by your own precious interests temporal and eternal, let not, I adjure you, let not prejudice or affection sway your princely wisdom in this cause.'

De Courtnaye now saw the tide strongly setting in against him, and at once summoning all his effrontery, said

The man lately committed to the Minster Dungeon has that to unfold which may limit the degree of credit due to thisWarden of the Minorites. Knowing this friar had been practising against me with the holy Bishop, I deemed it right to investigate the accusations he brought against the honour of the house of Courtnaye."

"Yes," interrupted De Biddulf, impatiently," and most unlawful means didst thou employ."

"But where is the Franciscan?" `repeated Richard; "thou hast not dared to harm him, Walter ??

My liege, he is scatheless for me, and that Sir Lionel knows-knows, too, why he is away; but what he may be unwilling to disclose on that subject, this Warner, if I be permitted to release him from his bonds, hath the means of making known."

Right gladly did Courtnaye receive the permission of the King, and quitting this displaced meeting, descended through the south gate of the Palace into the Close,,

Naked to his middle, his brawny arms strained round a thick column, that showed every vein and muscle, and his broad back answering with crimson streaks every stripe of the rods that were plentifully showered upon his bare skin, the robber chief met the eyes of his titled accomplice. Stop!" said Lord Walter," I bear King Richard's warrant to release this unhappy man, and to conduct him forthwith to the presence. Withdraw instantly," said he, unloosing with his own hands the cords with which Warner was tied, and assisting in giving him his clothes, which the other sullenly suffered.

When they were alone, "I might reproach thee, Captain," said De Courtnaye, "for great is the peril into which thy deceitful selfishness hath plunged me,

nay, I have only to accuse thee to the King of having for thine own ends wrought this coil of mischief, and thine head will roll on the Palace pavement to-morrow. But thou hast suffered; and, in spite of thy falsehood, I love thee too well-too well to save myself and gratify the proud Bishop by thy destruction."

Warner auswered not, but groaneɗ, and seemed as much in distraction of mind as pain of body. He had just finished' putting on his clothes, when the backward clang of the Minster bells, answered from the towers of the Palace, proclaimed some commotion.

An attendant rushed into the dungeon to say that a strong band of robbers had attacked Norburgh's Gate, and proclaimed their object to be the freedom of their imprisoned Captain. An escaped comrade had informed them of his detention, and (such was society in the fourteenth century) they had to a man left their hold, and were determined upon his rescue or death.

991

Ay!" groaned Warner, "but they are too late,-I am no longer their Captain, but a wild, ensnared beast ;-yet,' he muttered, "I have fangs and claws still!"

"Peace, peace!" said Courtnaye,"And thou, sirrah, hence! and learn the issue of this contest while I hold further parley with this unfortunate."

"Unfortunate!" said Warner, his heart now fiercely roused," and through whom but thee, thou felon lord?-Look to thyself!-I have been abused to the very death!!!

"Nay!" said Courtnaye, proffering a flask of wine, and only smiling as he saw the robber swallow it with eagerness,"at least pause ere thou devotest to ruin one whose misfortune it is as much as thine own that thou shouldst be imprisoned here."

"What am I to do, then? I own you have paid me well, and I would have repaid you, with my services; but this vile scourging has blotted me from humanity."

Yet there is one passion of humanity by which thou mayst do me princely service still, good Warner-Revenge!" "Revenge, and how? for unless my poor faithful fellows scale yonder giant barriers, I see no road to it."

"I will show thee one, and not so hard; it shall be through the mitre and dalmatique, through the head and heart of yon proud Dominican.-Foil Sir Lionel, and thou wilt delight my patron, whom (thanks to his imprudence) he hath already offended; betray the Franciscan, and thou shalt disarm the Bishop against me; win me the Lady Sybil, and thou shalt punish uncle and niece more fully than if thou hadst drunk their hearts' blood."

"But thy wife?"

May rest in thy keeping; I care not for the peevish quean; and she may be my_bond if thou distrustest me.".

The attendant here re-entered and announced that Lord Walter was immediately required to bring the prisoner to the Palace; the robbers had been repulsed, the greater part slain, and the rest captured.

"I am ruined then!" said Warner, wildly, and springing on De Courtnaye, the Baron stamped, and several assistants rushing in, effectually secured the ruffian by their leathern belts; while De Courtnaye, again requesting them to withdraw, thus addressed him :

"Art thou, then, so utterly dead to thine own interest, that, because a set of bloodhunters, who would sacrifice thyself the moment thou art an object of their jealousy, are fallen in the net they spread for others;-art thou so mad as not to remember that, while De Courtnaye lives, thou hast a treasury from whence thou mightest refit twenty such bands. The disclosures thou art to make will bear thee scatheless for the present; and these rose-nobles," he added, thrusting a large bag into the Captain's vest, "shall be followed by others that will go near to repay the losses thou hast met for my sake."

The chief was once more appeased, and now suffered himself to be led by the

attendants to the Palace, his arms closely fettered, and followed by Courtnaye. As they entered the back gates, a scene displayed itself which made Courtnaye rejoice at the precautions he had taken.Eight of the captive robbers lay headless on the pavement, and two more hastily shrieved by a barefooted monk, were kneeling with their shirts drawn down below their breasts and shoulders, from which, as their captain passed, their heads were stricken by the long sword of the executioner.

Warner gave them a look of impotent agony, and passing under the inner gateway through the bowling-green, was conducted into the garden, whose flowered walks were filled with groups of ladies, pale with wonder and consternation, and listening to the account of the late onslaught from the courtiers and knights who had just returned from the westgate. From them Lord Walter learned that His Grace the King was on the East, ern Terrace.

"Highly chafed," they said, was the blood of the Plantagenet, and he had repaired thither that the evening air might restore his princely mood." Thither, then, was the Robber Chief conveyed. This beautiful and extensive esplanade formed a broad shelf of turf, with here and there an old acacia or syamcore shooting their broad trunks over the moat ;--it stretched from the great east tower already mentioned, under the Bishop's chamber-the hall, the state room, and the chapel, whose broad hexagon descended to the moat. A lovely sunset streaming behind the Palace, fell in rich flakes over the meadows and orchards to the east, and the blue pool, with the broad gray tower of Chadstow, the parti-coloured houses of its street, and the yellow track of the great highway between Loudon and Chester, were variously inlaid with the ruddy light.

Richard of Bordeaux, at once roused from his easy mood by the late audacious insult, stood below an immense oak that tossed its bonghs against the eastern windows of the chapel, somewhat apart from his nobles, who were in deep conference around him.

"A goodly coil you have brought upon us, my lord," he said, as De Courtnaye approached the presence with his prisoner, doubtless our subjects deem that the days of Wat Tyler are to return;

but they shall find that Richard's manhood hath not forgotten the daring of his youth!"

"The coil, my gracious liege," sa Courtnaye, humbly kneeling," the coil is not'my work; but, if it please your

Grace, and these holy prelates, the detection of foul and pestilent heresy in this your Grace's loyal city, and in no mean member of their lordship's holy order, is my work, assisted by a misbold but faithful liegeman,"-and he drew from the vest of the bound and sullen Warner the papers which the preceding night they had taken from the person of the Franciscan at Edial.

The noble ecclesiastics looked round in awakened interest. The poor Warden's papers discovered not, only the prohibited English translation of the Testament, but also a correspondence between Father Henry Jordan, Warden of the Minorites, and Dr. Hereford, one of the Wickliffite leaders of the day, which at once proclaimed the poor Franciscan a rank heretic!

Sir Lionel was eagerly beginning to speak, when the excellent Dominican putting him aside with gentle force, (for in truth, the young man was greatly loved by the Bishop,) spoke briefly to the Archbishops, and apparently with their assent, thus spoke,

"Deadly, my liege, is the guilt of this Franciscan, thus clearly avouched-deadly as proclaiming him an unfruitful branch from the tree of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, cast off for the burning. But since error has blinded his eyes, it remains for us to convince him that the members of the church he hath deserted, judge not after the sight of their eyes nor the hearing of their ears. However these documents have been procured," (and the Bishop glanced witheringly at De Courtnaye,)" the Warden's charges are too heavy to be dismissed, at least without hearing what he personally may advance in their support."

Warm debates now ensued, to which the King put an end by saying," First let that ruffian be thrust forth from the city, and thank his comrades that they have paid his ransom with their heads. Walter of Courtnaye, thou hast presumed deeply on our favour, but we are willing to deem that yon villain hath misled thee, and that thou wilt be foremost to right thine unhappy dame if this friar's tale be true. The Knight of Helmhurst may rely on our support even against ourself in any matter of proved injustice. To our privy council, during our approach ing expedition to Ireland, we commit the management of this perplexed affair ;God prosper the right! And now, my lords, the mists of evening begin to shadow yon fair valley; we will to vespers de the chapel of our Confessor, and then, by the permission of the Lord Bishop, repair to his fair hall, where, in the pre

LECTURE ON VOLCANOES.
BY ALEXANDER BARRY, ESQ.
(Continued from p. 298.)

THE substances found in Volcanoes are exceedingly various: the principal are, masses of granite, Gneiss and Mica slate, limestone, basalt and porphyries, the ores of iron and copper, also crystalized copper salts, boracic acid, sulphur in abundance, sulphuret of selenium, alum, and sal ammoniac; obsidian or volcanic glass-a natural vitrification, feldspar, quartz rock, sodalite, and hundreds of other substances, modifications of the above. It has even been said that ores of gold, silver and mercury have been found in Vesuvius; tin-stone certainly occurs in it. In this mountain nature has deposited a greater variety of the treasures of her mineral kingdom than in any other: there is a striking difference in this respect-thus on the site of the extinct Volcano Radicofani, little is found besides very porous pumice and agglutinated lava.

[The Lecturer here shewed specimens of lava, containing much sulphur, which he had brought whilst still hot from the crater of Vesuvius.}'

The antiquity of volcanic eruption is, doubtless, high. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are supposed, by some, to have been destroyed by one. The size varies extremely, as Etna is 180 miles at the base, and 10,000 feet high, so high as to supply the island of Malta with ice and snow from its eternally frozen regions,—down to the little Monte di Fo in the Appenines, not more than two feet high and 40 feet in circumference. The cause of volcanic eruption appears to be much connected with the decomposition of water, the hydrogen coming off and inflaming at the mouth, where it is in contact with air. This is proved in many cases, by rain in large quantities increasing the effect. I

witnessed this at the Monte di Fo. Upon such principles, Sir H. Davy founded a theory of volcanic origin, viz. that the metallic bases of some of the earths and alkalies were in the first instance separated by electro-chemical action, and afterwards reconverted into oxides by the decomposition of water: the hydrogen and sulphuretted hydrogen would thus be constantly burning.

The effects of volcanic eruption are beneficial on the soil after some centuries, during which time the lava undergoes decomposition, and ultimately renders it very fertile. Hence we find, that in most instances the highly fruitful countries, as Italy and Sicily, the gardens of Europe, have been volcanized throughout.

We shall now briefly describe the general precursors of an eruption, and then proceed to detail several celebrated ones; first remarking, that it is impossible to assign a period to any exhibition of volcanic fury. A Volcano may suddenly appear any where; it may remain during a few weeks, and then disappear, or it may continue a mountain, but tranquil, for several centuries, and then burst out with greater violence than ever. The usual preliminaries of this, one of the most tremendous scourges that is per'mitted to visit the earth, and which exhibits the grandeur of nature in an unparalleled degree, may thus be summed up :-An increase of smoke at the crater, which becomes thicker, and generally assumes the form of a pine tree. This was the case with the memorable eruption of Vesuvius in the reign of Titus Vespasian, which destroyed Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabia, A.D. 79. This smoke rises to a vast height, and owing to the rapid and violent escape of gas, is constantly renewed, thus appearing stationary. (I saw the cloud of smoke from Vesuvius when fifty miles from Naples, when no flames issued.) This is followed by frequent lightnings and thunder, subterranean noises, a tremor of the earth, and explosions resembling the firing of artillery; the escape of steam, the boiling of water (hence "Cuisina del Diavolo,") succeed at times sounds resembling the howlings of monsters, the roaring of the wind, and even the pipes of an organ. These effects increase the air becomes sulphureous-a horrid gloom and darkness 'pervade nature-enormous clouds of sand fall, which in one eruption of Etna covered 150 square miles to the depth of 12 feet. Stones of a prodigious size are projected red hot, and thrown many thousand feet high, accompanied by showers of liquid lava and red flames rising to the height of several miles. The Earthquake

sometimes succeeds to these phenomena: the surrounding earth is convulsed-rivers are turned from their course-floods of sand, carbonic acid, water and mud flow from different apertures-the sea is agitated and troublous-the crystal stream is exchanged for the stagnant lake. mountains are raised in the ocean, others entombed by it. These effects generally gradually subside, after an immense discharge of lava, which has been 40 miles long and three miles in breadth.

Most of these phenomena occur in the great eruptions of Vesuvius. The first eruption of this mountain is recorded by Dion Cassius, which has been already referred to. Dion, in speaking of it, says, great quantities of ashes and sulphureous smoke were carried not only to Rome, but also beyond the Mediterranean-into Africa, and even to Egypt. Birds fell dead in the air from suffocation, and fishes perished in the neighbouring waters, which were made hot by it. Sir W. Hamilton considers that the eruption of 1767 was the twenty-seventh from this ; since which time they have been frequent. Bishop Berkeley gives a particular account of the eruption of 1717. Prince Cassano, P. T. No. 435, of the eruption of 1737. On this last occasion the lava flowed half a mile per hour. Trees fell as the lava touched them, and the glass in the houses was softened by it. Sir W. Hamilton.has given, in the P. T. an accurate account of the eruptions of 1766, 1767, and 1779. I shall select the one of 1779.

During the whole month of July, the mountain was in a state of fermentation. Subterraneous explosions and rumbling. noises, with scoria and ashes, were observed, and towards the end of the month these increased so much as to produce the effect of beautiful fireworks.

On Thursday, Aug. 5, the Volcano became violently agitated: a white sulphureous smoke continuing and impetuously issuing from the crater, accumulated till four times the height and size of the Volcano itself; it was so white as to resemble bales of fine cotton. In the midst of this, vast showers of stones, scoria and ashes were thrown up 2000 feet, and a flood of lava clearing the rim of the crater, which thus boiled over, ran violently for some hours, stopping at the border of the cultivated parts, The heat was all day intolerable at Somma and Ottaiano. Reddish ashes fell so thick in these towns that the air was darkened enough to render objects invisible at the distance of ten feet in the day time. Filaments, apparently of spun, vitrified matter followed, birds were suffocated in cages, and the trees near Somma were covered with a white

and corrosive salt. On the night of the 7th, all these effects increased. Sir W. H. watched it from the Mole at Naples, which commands a full view of it. Several glorious picturesque effects had been observed from the reflection of the deep red fire within the crater of Vesuvius, when a summer storm, called a tropea, coming on, blended its heavy waters with the sulphureous clouds, which appeared like mountains piled on Vesuvius. At this moment, a fountain of fire, shot up to an incredible height, shed so bright a glow that the smallest object within six miles of Vesuvius was distinctly seen; indeed Mr. Morris read the title of a book twelve miles off. The black stormy clouds passing around it-the pale forked lightning the crimson glow of the mountain -the combustion of its materials reflected from the heavens and sea, produced a protean display of colours that no pencil could sufficiently portray-no poet adequately describe. The accompanying torrents of rain fell hot, and at Ottaiano scalded one of the king of Naples' gamekeepers.

On the 8th, the mountain was tranquil till six, P.M. Much smoke then accumulated; at seven a subterranean noise was heard, and the usual volleys of redhot stones appeared. The crater, seen through a telescope, appeared much enlarged by the eruption of the night before. About nine, an explosion happened, which so shook Portici and its neighbourhood, that many windows were broken and walls cracked by the concussion. This noise was faintly heard at Naples. In an instant, a column of liquid fire rose, and gradually reached the height of more than 10,000 feet. This was succeeded at intervals by jets of densely black smoke. The lava and-stones descending covered the cone of Vesuvius, the top of Somma, and the valley between them. The fiery shower was two miles and a half in breadth, and cast a sensible heat six miles around it. The brushwood on the mountain was soon in a blaze, and the black column, through which vivid lightning constantly darted, was at one time moving towards Naples, and threatened the city with speedy destruction; it had just reached the city when the wind changed, and carried it back again; the column of fire, however, still remained and rendered the smallest objects visible at more than ten miles distance from the mountain..

This eruption concluded with a great shower of red-hot stones and black scoria in Ottaiano, just as the inhabitants were preparing to quit the town. Many of the stones measured eight feet in diameter. The whole town was enveloped in clouds

and showers of cinders for twenty-five minutes, when the eruption suddenly ceased, and Vesuvius remained sullen and silent. Many small stones and cinders were afterwards found to have been thrown thirty miles, and volcanic ashes, very small, fell in abundance 100 miles off.

Having already remarked on the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii, I shall now conclude with a few observations upon the state of those ruins. Neither of those cities were of the first class. Pompeii was buried by cinders only-at least no lava flowed into it. Herculaneum was entombed by a shower of cinders, accompanied by water and some lava: the effect of the water was to unite the stones, &c. into a hard cement, and from this circumstance, and the presence of the hardened lava, arises the increased difficuity in excavating Herculaneum. This town exists under the foundations of the present Resina, and hence is continually filled up after the valuables have been obtained. Among these may be mentioned two splendid equestrian statues of the Balbi family, found in a corridor of the Amphitheatre-earthen vases, bronze candelabras, paintings, manuscripts (on papyri and chiefly of music), &c. &c.— Pompeii, on the contrary is laid open, and the comparatively loose soil easily removed. The leading objects of this interesting and vast relict are, the Amphitheatre, perfect, except the paintings, which represented the combats of animals, &c. These were in admirable preservation when first excavated, but the too sudden exposure to the air and moisture destroyed them. In this Amphitheatre seven skeletons of lions were found. The Forum, containing a pedestal, upon which stood a statue of Sallust; the house of Sallust-that of Diomedes, in which seventeen human skeletons were found. The house of Cicero-of the Consul Panza. The Pantheon, containing excellent paintings of Europa and the Bull and Diana and Actaeon. The Temples of Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, &c. The Basilica; public baths; city wall; street of tombs; Tragic and Comic Theatre; prisons, and two splendid fountains, covered with coarse but rich mosaic, &c. &c. are the leading objects. The streets are narrow, the edges of the stones next the curb worn by the wheels, and the clear distance between the wheels as thus indicated, I found to be four feet one inch. It appears that Pompeii was subject to inundations of water, for stepping-stones are provided for passengers at the junction of many of the narrowest streets. The walls of the rooms are richly coloured-the floors in beautiful mosaic. On one floor