ter, whither he was immediately car- stituted its essence, and whither is it ried, and saw the board on which he now fled? These are interrogatives was stretched along, and died! The which baffle human research-these only light they had was half a dozen are secrets not to be disclosed to the lanterns, and around him were the ever-restless curiosity of man-No; wounded and the dying, whilst in he is laid in the dark and silent grave, front, stood a table on which those and there we leave him. His grateful were laid across whose mangled limbs countrymen have bestowed on his rerequired instant amputation! Here mains, a profusion of honours not to the Hero breathed his last-enquiring be paralleled in the annals of our at short intervals how many of the country. ships of the enemy had struck, and then respiring with difficulty for a few moments, died without a groan : We passed some time in the cabin of Lord Nelson, where we saw various packages numbered and markeđ with his name..—We particularly observed a sofa, pictures, &c. with which the apartment had been furnished and embellished. The hammock on which he lay was carefully packed up, and the secluded spot was pointed out to us where it had swung, and in which the Hero who has now slept the sleep of death, had reposed for many an hour amidst the toils and perplexities of his station. The little table fixed to the side of the ship still remained, where he passed great part of his time in writing, having at his elbow a portable compass, by which the course of the ship was ascertained. His small book-case had a hole in the back of it, made by a cannon ball during the action, by which the glass door was broken, and some of the books scattered on the floor! There were many other indications of the havoc, which had been effected on the late memorable occasion. Next day the body was opened; the ball after considerable search was found lodged near the vertebræ of the back, having penetrated the shoulder, above the four stars which he wore on the occasion, psssed through the left lobe of the lungs, broke three ribs, and filled the cavity with blood! The bowels and heart were afterwards taken out, but the latter was put back again into its former station. The On our return to the main deck of body was wrapt round with callico the ship, we were politely offered bandages, as were also the limbs, a some rum, and tasting it, we found it shirt being flung over the whole and to be exccedingly good. Upon exthe face veiled, it was placed in a pressing our favourable opinion of its puncheon of rum. It was afterwards quality, it was instantly remarked by taken out and put into a second pun- the officer-"We are glad you like it cheon of rum, the head leaning on Sir-it is the same sort as that in which the breast and the limbs gently folded the body of Lord Nelson was pretogether. When finally placed in a served!" So that you perceive that shell, the head was swollen and the every thing that has the remotest refeatures altered, and it was thought ference to the departed Hero, is held that it would require some time be- in veneration. Even a lock of his hair fore the spirits would be absorbed, and preserved in a breast pin was shewn the countenance would recover its us as a precious relic-it was of a pale usual appearance. When we thus grey-though probably the powder trace the process of preserving the which he wore had contributed to the mortal frame of so celebrated a per- appearance it now assumed. He sonage, we cannot help reflecting on seems to have been beloved and esthe nature of that wonderful intellect- teemed by the officers and men; for nal principle, by which it had been during our short stay on board the once animated! What is it that con- Victory, several expressions acciden Tis here all meet! fore And of all creeds-the Jew, the Turk, the Christian! tally reached our ears, honourable to ready to exclaim in the language of his memory. Expressing to one of Blair's Grave, the officers, my regret for his having worn his insigna during the action, and by which he was singled out as the victim of death-it was replied, that wearing them on ordinary occasi ons, had he then laid them aside, it would have indicated fear, and this being a contagious passion, might have produced the most pernicious effects on the ship's company. Taking therefore this trait of conduct which has been the subject of censure in this point of view, he made an honorable, but fatal sacrifice in behalf of his country. Their sun-burnt features, and strange harlequin dresses, also formed a curious spectacle! They all, however, looked healthy, seemed chearful, and even merry; for the French possess the enviable art of beguiling the sorrows of captivity. We happened to be there just when the principal meal was delivered out In descending the side of the Vic- to them; they crowded towards a traptory, we found some difficulty on ac- door which had been thrown open, count of the numbers, who crowding whence they bore in one hand, some around with their boats, were waiting pieces of warm boiled beef, stuck on a to ascend for a similar gratification of wooden skewer, with bread attached their curiosity. Having seated our- to it, whilst in the palm of the other selves in our little skiff, we ordered hand, they had some salt given them, the boatman to row us to the Sand- which scattering over their delicious wich, about a mile distant; it was the morsel, they danced away with it to a ship on board of which Richard Par- another part of the deck, where they ker was executed for the mutiny at devoured it with seeming pleasure and the Nore, which threw the whole na- satisfaction. Perhaps it was as good tion into alarm and confusion. It had a meal as ever they had eaten in their been the theatre of his crime, and was own country. We went below, and made the scene of his punishment. It at the extremity of the ship, saw is now a prison-ship, and contains through loop-holes between the decks. upwards of 800 of the prisoners taken The prisoners were amusing themat the battle of Trafalgar! Ascending selves in various ways, their different with great case an accommodation births had the appearance of being ladder, we were admitted on board clean and airy, and indeed it is evident and received with politeness by the that the commanding officer treats commanding officer. We saw near them with care and humanity. half the prisoners who were just got There was one singular character upon deck for an airing, but we were whom we did not see: he has been not permitted to speak to them. We lately very shy, and often withdraws looked down upon them from an ele- himself from public view. We might vation, so that the poor creatures, have seen him, however, if we chose ; had all the appearance of so many but in a case like the present, we cattle or sheep in a pen, and were so could not think of subjecting a fellow thick that they could scarcely move! ereature, thus degraded, to the eye Never before, surely, were so many of an impertinent curiosity. His name grotesque figures huddled together on is Blackman: he professes himself a any occasion. They were chiefly Frenchman, though suspicions are enFrench, some Putch, a few Spa- tertained of his being an Englishman. niards, several Moors black as jet; He has been extremely successful in others had the appearance of Jews, privateering, and for a length of time and there were two or three Egypti- dreadfully annoyed the trade of this ans, said to be Mamelukes, brought country. He has been the Paul Jones by Buonaparte himself from Egypt! of the present war. He is said to be When leaning over the railing, I was a man of considerable property, ac cumulated by his depredations on the unparalleled victory, invasion, with its ocean. It is even reported, that Bo- attendant horrors, hath ceased for naparte was present at the launching awhile, at least, to affright the inof his last privateer at Boulogne, and habitants of our peaceful isle. Hawhich was decorated by the colours of ving been engaged in battles far morethe very many vessels he had taken numerous than any of his cotempora on former occasions. ries, where the shafts of death flew thick around him, and by which his, frame was sadly mutilated-it was reserved for thee alone to close his days We now again descended into our boat, and were soon put on shore, when, after a dirty walk, we reached home, pleased with the gratification of our curiosity. Here I would have closed, but having been favoured with a sight of the fatal ball which killed Lord Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar, I will here add an account of it, and the reflections which the view of it occasioned. It was inclosed in a small square mahogany box, with a glass over it. It seemed to me an ounce ball. It is of a reddish colour, having remained in the body for so many hours; is flattened in that part which struck and fractured the ribs; and it has attached to it, not only a small piece of his lordship's coat, but a portion of the gold lace, and pad of the epaulette. The sight of it, altogether, was to me, novel and affecting; it filled my mind with sorrowful enotions, and on my return home, 1 committed the following reflections to paper. A kind friend, at whose house I was visiting, wished their insertion in the Kentish Courier of the next day, with which its editor obligingly complied. With these reflections I conclude my narrative. full of honour and of glory! Thou fatal bal!! faithfully executing thy commission --thou hast snatched him away from amidst the toils which he must have had to endure in his continued endeavours to serve his country! Diminutive in thy size, and in significant in thine appearance--thou wast, in thine energy, awfully decisive! And attaching to thyself, even in the very act of accomplishing the work of death-a part of the exterior decorations of thy noble and far-fam'd victim, which still glitters on the eye of the inspector, with a kind of ghastly lustre-thou art, at once, indicative of his former rank and station, and a proof of that mortality from which the bravest and the most renowned are not exempted! Oh! when shall the desolations of war cease, and the incalculable blessings of peace be lastingly realised. Adieu-thou winged messenger of death-to me thou hast been an object neither of idle curiosity, nor of uninteresting speculation! And whilst I drop a tear over the ravages which thou hast effected in laying low in the dust, one of the most illustrious sons of Britain-May I depart, meditating upon the fragile nature, and the speedy extinction of human glory! I am, dear Sir, Thou messenger of death! Winged by an unerring hand; didst thou,alas! terminate the career of a man, whose achievements in behalf of his country, are known and celebrated throughout the four quarters of the globe! It was thine to end the life of that Hero, whose bold and enterprising genius has for years past kept in awe the ene- Pullin's-Row, Islington, mies of our native land! By his late Jan. 13, 1800. Yours, CRITICISMS for JANUARY, 1806. ART. XI. The Life and Pontificate 1805. Continued from page 436, of our Ma- dinal de Medici, in 1492, the latter returned to Florence, for the purpose of giving, by his presence, weight and authority to the Medician family. He distinguished himself greatly by his generosity to men of learning, especially those who had been the ob in the approaching disturbances of 66 jects of the regard and affection of his father; and Mr. Roscoe observes, that at this time, the general disposition of the inhabitants was indeed so highly favourable to the Medici, that the au- Impelled by those and other cirthority of Piero (who was appoint- cumstances, and perhaps also by the ed the successor to all the honours en- laudable desire of visiting foreign counjoyed by his late father, Lorenzo) tries, the cardinal determined to quit seemed to be established on as sure a Italy, and to pass some portion of his foundation, as that of any of his an- time in traversing the principal kingcestors, with the additional stability doms of Europe, till events might arise which length of time always gives more favourable to his views. This deto public opinion. Notwithstanding sign he communicated to his cousin these appearances, when the ambition Giulio de Medici, and it was agreed to of Lodovico Storza had invited Charles form a party of twelve friends; a numVIII. into Italy, and Piero had resolv-ber which they considered sufficiently ed to assist in opposing the inva- large for their mutual security, in the der, dissentions broke out among the common incidents of a journey, and too inhabitants, and the cardinal, with his small to afford any cause of alarm. Disbrothers, were expelled the city. The carding, therefore, the insignia of their former, not equally alarmed, or more rank, and equipping themselves in an reluctant to quit his native place, was uniform manner, they passed through the last to leave it. Finding, howe- the states of Venice, and visited most of ver, that the populace were proceed- the principal cities of Germany; asing to the utmost extreme of violence, suming in turn, the command of their he divested himself of the insignia of troop, and partaking of all the amusehis rank, and assuming the habit of ments afforded by continual change of a Franciscan, passed without being place, and the various manners of the recognised, through the midst of the inhabitants. On their arrival at Ulm, exasperated multitude, to the convent their singular appearance occasioned of St. Marco, where he hoped to find their being detained by the magistrates; a temporary shelter, in a building but on disclosing their quality and purerected and endowed by his ancestors. pose, they were sent under a guard to In this he was disappointed; the the emperor Maximilian, who received monks having, with singular ingrati- the eardinal with that respect and attentade, refused to admit him within their gates. Repulsed from the only quarter on which he relied for protection, he immediately abandoned the city, and hastening into the secret recesses of the Apennines, effected his retreat, and joined his brothers at Bologna. This event took place in 1494, he being at that time nineteen years old. Three unsuccessful attempts were afterwards made to reestablish the Medician authority. The ill fortune, or misconduct of Piero, had defeated all their endeavours, and every new attempt had only served to encrease the violence of their enemies, and to bar the gates of Florence more firmly against them. For five years, the cardinal had been compelled to avail himself successively of the pro!tection of the ancient friends of his family, in different parts of Italy; but as the hopes of his restoration to Florence diminished, he began to be regarded as an exile and a fugitive, and tion, to which, from the celebrity of his ancestors, and his high rank in the church, he was so well entitled. Far from interrupting their progress, Maximilian highly commended the magnanimity of the cardinal in bearing his adverse fortune with patience; and his judgment and prudence, in applying to the purposes of useful information, that portion of his time, of which he could not now dispose to better advantage. Besides furnishing him with an honourable passport through the German states, Maximilian, gave him letters to his son Philip, then governor of the low countries; recommending the cardinal and his companions, to his protectiou and favour. "After having passed a considerable time in Germany, the associated friends proceeded to Flanders, where they were received by Philip, not only with hos pitality, but with magnificence. The cardinal then intended to have taken shipping and proceeded to England; but 1 1 the danger of the voyage deterred his Piero de' Medici, which took place in friends from the undertaking; and at 1503, seems to have been the period their entreaties, he relinquished his de- from which the fortunes of his house sign. They, therefore, bent their course once more began to revive. The intowards France. On their arrival at considerate conduct, the ambitious Rouen, they were again seized upon, views, and the impetuous, arrogant and detained in custody; and although disposition of Piero, (observes Mr. the cardinal, and his cousin Giulio, Roscoe) had been always strongly conmade an immediate discovery of their 'trasted, by the mild and placable tem rank, and represented the object of their per of the cardinal; who, although journey to be totally unconnected with he had on all occasions adhered to his political concerns, yet, in the state brother, as the chief of his family, had of hostility that had then commenced always endeavoured to soothe the viobetween the kings of France and of lence of those passions, and to modeNaples, there appeared to be too much ground for suspicion, to admit of their being speedily released; nor was it until letters were obtained from Piero de' Medici, then in the French camp at Milan, that they were enabled to procare their discharge. Having again obtained their liberty, they proceeded through France, visiting every place deserving of notice, and observing whatever was remarkable, till they arrived at Marseilles, where, after a short stay, they determined to proceed by sea immediately to Rome. The winds being, however, unfavourable, they were compelled to coast the Riviera of Genoa, where, having been driven on shore, they thought it adviseable to relinquish their voyage, and proceed by land to Savona. On their arrival at this place, they met with the cardinal Guiliano della Rovere, who had fled thither, to avoid the resentment of Alexander VI. A common enmity to that profligate pontiff, and a similarity of misfortunes, rendered their meeting interesting; and three refugees sat at the same table, all of whom wereafterwards elevated to the highest dignity in the Christian world. The two cousins of the Medici gave an account of the objects which they had met with on their journey, and related the difficulties which they had surmounted by land, and the dangers which they had encountered by sea. The cardinal della Rovere recapitulated in his turp, the events which had taken place in Italy since their departure, and in which they were so deeply interested. From Savona the cardinal de' Medici repaired to Genoa, where, for some time, he took up his residence with his sister, Madalena, the wife of Francisco Cibo, who had fixed upon that city as the place of his permanent abode.' rate those aspiring pretensions which, after having occasioned his expulsion from Florence, still continued to operate, and effectually precluded his return. During the latter part of the pontificate of Alexander VI. the cardinal de' Medici had fixed his residence at Rome; where, devoted to a private life, he had the address and good fortune, if not to obtain the favour of that profligate pontiff, at least to escape his resentment. The election of Julius II, to the pontificate, opened to him the prospect of brighter days. It is true, Julius was the nephew of Sixtus IV. the inveterate enemy of the Medicean name; but these ancient antipathies had long been converted into attachment and esteem. Under the favour of this pontiff, the cardinal had an opportunity of indulging his natural disposition to the cultivation of polite letters, and the promotion of works of art. His books, though not numerous, were well chesen, and his domestic hours were generally spent in the society of such dignified and learned ecclesiastics, as could at times condescend to lay aside the severity of their order, to discuss the characteristics of generous actions, the obligations of benevolence and atfection, the comparative excellencies of the fine arts, or the nature and essence of human happiness. In deciding upon the productions of architecture, of painting, and of sculpture, his taste was hereditary, and he was resorted to by artists in every department, as to an infallible judge. With the science of music, he was theoretically and practically conversant, and his house more frequently re-echoed with the sprightly harmony of concerts, than with the solemn sounds of devotion. Debarred by his profession G The death of the cardinal's brother, |