Review of the Village of Mariendorpt⚫

at the baptismal ceremony of a child who was born to rob him for ever of his patrimony. During the rejoicings which were held, to celebrate as well this auspicious event, as Roselheim's investiture in the lordships of Rhinegravestein and Wisbaden, Esther, a faithful servant of Rupert's mother, who had purposely braved every danger of the journey, secretly told to him his mother's history, which had hitherto been carefully concealed from him. Roused by an honorable pride, he left his father's castle and escaped safely under Esther's guidance to Ebrenfels, where he met his mother and uncle.

After Melchior's recovery, Rupert and his mother returned to Mariendorpt, where a friendship commenced between him and a young clergyman named Aremberg. About four months elapsed from the period of his arrival, when his uncle Melchior procured for him the appointment of page to a general in the Swedish service. Aremberg accompanied him into Silesia, and accepted the office of chaplain to the general; and Rupert, who continued his studies under his direction, was soon induced to become a Protestant. During a severe winter the sea inundated Jutland where Rupert was quartered, and by the greatest exertion of deliberate courage he and Aremberg saved from the waters his mother's cousin, Adolpha Falkenberg, and her aunt, Madame Krazau. Mutual admiration produced a mutual esteem between the cousins, and Rupert's uncle, misled by appearances, took the first opportunity of informing Madame Roselheim of her son's supposed attachment. In the course of the ensuing campaign, the Swedish army marched into Bohemia, and Rupert, whose atchievements had raised him to the honorable office of his general's aid-de-camp, was sent to storm a castle, and succeeded, but was wounded by the falling of an old arch-way so severely as to be disabled for the rest of the campaign. In the castle were found two prisoners, his step-brother, young Julian, and the child's governor, father Joachim, who had been sent to this part of Bohemia for the benefit of Julian's health. As Rupert's father, now Count Rhinegravestein, was the chief commander of the imperialists, the allies refused to accept a ransom for the child, until Rhinegravestein should have liberated a Hessian prisoner of rank; but Rupert was allowed to bring him to Holland, where he revived in Madame Roselheim's bosom every tender recollection of her still loved though unworthy husband.

Review of the Village of Mariendorpt.

During this retirement from the fatigues of warfare, Rupert was captivated by the mild virtues of Meeta, Muhldenau's daughter, and she allowed the esteem with which she at first regarded him to ripen into love. Adolpha and Aremberg also, who had joined the party in Mariendorpt, beheld each other with mutual complacency; and when her visit ended, he accompanied her and Madame Krazau to the residence of the latter in Saxony.

Rupert's military duties at length called for his attendance; but ere he departed, Julian was carried off from Mariendorpt by three ruffians, and Rupert, immediately suspecting his father as the author of this breach of parole, departed for the army to redeem his own character from the imputation of any connivance. After a short arrest, he was honorably acquitted. It was Julian's mother who had committed this dishonorable action; and Rhinegravestein soon after cleared his fame by coming, in despite of personal risk, to the camp, and delivering up the child into Rupert's hands. The father and son met and parted firmly. Julian was placed in a monastery for the necessary security, and Rupert was shortly after sent to a small frontier town, of which his uncle Melchior was commander. He was not many days there when Baron Idenstein, a young man, came with Julian, now ransomed, and gave him a letter containing the title deeds of his mother's lost estate in Bohemia, presented by his father in Julian's name, as a requital for his great attentions to the child, while under his care: Rupert, however, refused to accept them.

His steadiness and talent often caused the commander-inchief to employ him on dangerous or secret services; and on his return from one of these he acquired some private information which enabled his uncle Melchior to guard against an attack and save his fortress-but his uncle fell in the contest. In the succeeding campaign his father was severely wounded; and at length the remorse which had so long been preying on his spirits determined him to seek a reconciliation with Madame Roselheim and Rupert, and, leaving his haughty and unprincipled wife, to withdraw for the remainder of his life to some cloister's retirement. In this determination he was confirmed by the contempt expressed for his now disfigured countenance by the woman for whom he had devoted his once loved Henrietta to infamy and poverty.

Muhldenau accepted a commission from the widowed queen of Bohemia, to attempt the recovery of some papers which were secreted in the vaults of one of her late husband's

Review of the Village of Mariendorpt.

palaces in the Electorate; and Meeta accompanied him as far as Dresden, to the residence of Madame` Krazau. This lady's life had fallen a sacrifice to ill-health before their arrival, and Meeta remained with Adolpha. Muhldenau reached the place of his destination in safety, but was apprehended on his return and thrown into prison as a spy. His daughter went instantly to Prague where he was confined; but she was refused admittance. Muhldenau's execution had been delayed at the entreaty of Baron ldenstein's bride, and after many days agonizing suspense, Meeta gained an interview with this lady, and through her means was allowed to remain with her father.

In the mean time, Rhinegravestein had recovered from the effects of his wounds-had gone secretly to Holland-had seen Madame Roselheim-entreated and obtained her forgiveness and had returned to assume the monastic habit in Prague. On the morning of his profession Meeta watched his return from the chapel, and presented him a paper mentioning her father's name and fate, and his connection with Rupert. Rhinegravestein applied to the emperor for his pardon, but in vain. The Baroness Idenstein came to visit Muhldenau, and he recognised in her the daughter he had lost in Magdeburg; but scarcely had he made the affecting discovery when the order for his death arrived, and he was desired to be prepared in the morning. Meeta spent the night in the prison, and was alarmed at a late hour by the sound of musketry and shouting. A small party of Swedes, under the command of Rupert, who had heard of Muhldenau's approaching fate, surprised the garrison, little apprehensive of such an attack; and in an hour after the assault, Rupert held Meeta in his arms. Peace followed this surprise of the Bohemian capital, and the son of Frederic V. was acknowledged as Elector Palatine. Madame Roselheim's estates, were, of course, restored to her, and Rupert and Meeta, Aremberg and Adolpha reaped the fruits of their long tried fidelity in happy marriages.

We have mentioned but few of the military events which distinguished these memorable campaigns, and in which Rupert is supposed to have sustained no despicable character. Indeed the few pages we could devote to this subject confined us to a mere abstract of the private histories of our hero and heroine; nor on a candid view of the novel, though many detached beauties are scattered through it, would we have esteemed it worthy of such notice, if the name of its

Review of the Village of Mariendorpt.

author had not earned for it an undue celebrity. With respect to its general conduct we remarked an almost uncommon tediousness of detail and a minute attention to every change in the sentiments of lovers, who, at their most ardent moments are little better than cold plodding calculators. Rupert is much perplexed whether he shall address the rich heiress Adolpha, or his mother's youthful friend Meeta; and even that mother, who is intended to be a pattern of meekness, and piety, and perfection, would prefer her own sordid interest in her son's marriage to the happiness of her benefactor's daughter. Almost to the last page we were in doubt whether Aremberg or Rupert should enjoy Madame Krazau's property; but as to the disposal of the girls, we entertained no apprehensions; as the authoress had so arranged the gentlemen's feelings, that we were assured Aremberg would allow his friend to make a choice, and be satisfied himself with her on whom, unhappily, the lot had not fallen.

We may talk of the venality of mankind, but have we ever heard of a servant demanding, a young lady's ringlets of waving gold as a bribe for admittance to his mistress; and that young lady accompanying him to an out-house where he may more conveniently free her from the incumbrance. Though Meeta's love for her father might induce her to submit to the indignity, we do not think one could be found among all the governor's domestics so totally free from generosity.

We could give many specimens of bad composition-perhaps the few following may suffice:

"And made a pleasant place to take tea in of summer evenings." "I remember a moment when I laid hold of some one's apron with a baby in their armıs."

"Had not some one extended their hand."

"The duration of Rupert's seizure was short in proportion to its sharpness, and his friends were not long of being comforted by the certainty that it had passed away."

We think barbarousness is a very barbarous substantive.

We believe Miss A. M. Porter is the authoress of " the Hungarian Brothers."-If so, her movements have been rather retrograde. In that tale she excited a strong interest in the reader's mind-in the present scarcely any. But we leave with pleasure this censure of " the Village of Mariendorpt," to remark that on many occasions she reminded us of other

Review of the Village of Mariendorpt.

times. The usual tameness of her narration is in some places relieved by the most animated description; and when we read the account of the storming of Magdeburg-the meeting of Rupert and his mother-Rupert's first gallant atchievement by which he won his commission-the inundation of Jutland-several actions during the campaigns, particularly that in which Melchior meets his death-the last meeting of Rhinegravestein and Madame Roselheim-and the concluding scene of the tale, we feel ourselves almost repaid for the dullness of the remaining pages. In short we think the real incidents might with great advantage be compressed into two volumes, and that the pervading coldness of the tale arises from her wish to stretch them to the extent of four.

We will conclude by presenting an extract from the first volume, which, though not free from the defects of careless composition, is a bold description of a flood.

It was night when they came in sight of the inundation. The fearful roar of the waters was heard, long ere they saw them; but when, having quitted their horses and ascended the high tower of an observatory, they looked down upon the low country, or rather where that country had been, they were transfixed with horror and amazement. As far as the eye could reach was overwhelmed by the flood. Every island of the Heverstroem, and those still further out in the north sea, were covered with the terrible element, and Rupert saw with feelings impossible to describe, ships borne over the places where those islands had been, as if riding in an open sea.

Where he had so lately beheld a fertile coast, covered with villages and towns, with churches and colleges, and populous with happy industry, he saw only formless water under which lay buried those villages and towns with all their wealth and inhabitants. Not only the rich marshes of Sleswick and Ditmarsen were drowned by this awful flood, but the high grounds were fast disappearing under its rising volumes.

Even now the water came thundering on, assaulting with repeated shocks the walls of the remaining strong buildings on the tops of which some living objects might be discovered. The cries of those unhappy people, if they uttered any, were lost in the din of the waves and the howling of the winds.

It was still blowing so violently from the south-west, that it seemed as if all Jutland would be overflowed, and that the two seas of the Baltic and the German ocean would unite over her desolate land.

The whole surface below the eye was rushing water; while above, the dim moon, like a pale phantom wandered through the pathless sky. Sometimes the faint outline of her disk was traceable among the drifting vapours; but soon those vapours obscured it: and then first her form and finally her light confused and melted away into the watery clouds.