: she preserved her own dignity, have gained || not only more general respect, but have held the fickle heart of her husband more firmly but she not only made herself conspicuous in the silly manners of the court, then so much in vogue, such as masquerading about the streets and environs of London, in various disguises, but her intimacy with the Duchess of Cleveland, the most imperious and rapacious of all her || rivals, the whisperings and laughter that often took place between her Majesty and || this kuown and public mistress of the King, excited the wonder of her husband, but diminished both his affection and respect; as he regarded her, which, in fact, she was not, as a weak-minded and unfeeling wo man. A curious anecdote is related by Ives, in his Select Papers, concerning the Queen, at a fair at Audley End; where, with the Duchess of Richmond and the Duchess of Buckingham, her Majesty went, all of them disguised like country girls, with red petticoats and waistcoats. Sir Bernard Gascoign rode on a cart-horse before the Queen, a stranger before the Duchess of Buckingham, and Mr. Roper before the Duchess of Richmond. They had, however, so overdone their disguises, that they looked more like antique pictures than country folks; so that they had soon a crowd after them. The Queen went to a stall, and asked for a pair of yellow stockings stitched with blue, || for her sweetheart; and there her bad English betrayed her, and the crowd increased: one woman, especially, having seen the Queen when dining in public, was so proud of her knowledge, that she soon told who it was, which brought a still greater crowd to stare at the Queen. The courtly party, finding themselves discovered, all got back to their horses as fast as they could; and all those at the fair who had gone thither on horseback, set off behind them on full gallop, till they arrived at the court gate. The Queen also frequently accompanied the King to unknown houses, in such disguises that it was impossible they could be known; and in which houses they danced together, having gone thither in hackney chairs. Once the chairmen who carried the Queen, not knowing who she was, went away and left her alone; at which || || she was sadly distressed, and was, at length, obliged to go back to Whitehall in a cart. Though Katharine could not fix the heart of her husband, she, nevertheless, by her sweet complying temper, gained his esteem, and he ever treated her with outward respect and kindness. The people became attached to her for her virtue and good nature; while she loved her husband tenderly, and the heart of Charles was not proof against the affection she evinced for him, as she lay on a sick bed, so severely indisposed that it was thought every `breath she took would be her last. She wept over the royal hand that now fondly pressed her own, while Charles, mingling his tears with hers, besought her to live for his sake. Her joy at hearing these words of comfort restored her to life, but not to happiness: she had yet to witness the triumph of succeeding rivals, and to find, that with her danger had vanished all the transitory tenderness of a husband she adored. To sum up the character of Katharine of Braganza: it was certain, according to the testimony of Lord Clarendon and other authentic writers, that she had beauty and wit sufficient to captivate the King, and that Charles, on his first meeting with her, and for some time afterwards, was highly pleased with her; but she had too little experience of the world, having been educated in monastic seclusion; from this restraint she was called to rule over a licen tious court, and to be the Queen-consort of a powerful monarch, but from whose king. dom morality was banished, and replaced by the most unlicensed freedom of manners. After a painful struggle, she conformed, to please the King, with the prevailing mode: but it was too late to regain the heart that had irrevocably strayed from her, though she lived with him on easy and amicable terms till his death. She survived her royal husband some years, and resided, during her stay in England, at SomersetHouse; which she left on the 30th of March, 1692, and retired to Lisbon, where she carried with her several very valuable pictures belonging to the royal collection; some of which, we are informed, are yet in the possession of the present family of Braganza. Queen Katharine died on the Sist of December, 1705. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. HISTORICAL AND SELECT ANECDOTES. four persons there must have flowed a considerable quantity of blood, and we see no blood in your house." "Oh," he blood." This explanation was enough; and it is still talked of in Tripolizza as a most noble act of heroism. FREDERIC THE GREAT, AND GENERAL ANECDOTE OF THE LATE CHARLES FOX. WHEN Mr. Fox was travelling once through Wales, in order to embark for Ireland, the extreme poverty that appear-replied, "these immaterial beings have no ed in every part of the country gave him occasion to exercise his talents for ridicule, as well as his wit. In Carnarvonshire particularly, he observed, that from the sterility of the place, and the variety of mountains in it, he had no doubt, that goats were there as plentiful as black-berries. A country farmer who was in the stage coach at the time, replied, that they lay under the same disadvantage in this country, that was found to have been of great detriment to other parts of England, for they could not keep a goat or a sheep, for the devouring Foxes, that pestered there. This remark seemed to divide || itself so naturally between Charles and his creditors, that it threw a damp on his hilarity for the remainder of the day. ANECDOTE OF A PICTURE BUYER. SOME years ago, a gentleman sold the greatest part of his family pictures at a very small price; the size of them not suiting his rooms. In his travels round an auction room of pictures a short time back, he saw the head of an old man, that pleased him so much, that he gave a very large sum for it. On enquiry of the dealer whose property it was, and as to the manner in which he came by the picture, he found out that he had, without knowing it, been buying his own grandfather. TURKISH SUPERSTITION. WHEN the then Emperor of Germany, and Frederic of Prussia met at Neisse, the principal officers of both sovereigns were invited to a grand entertainment. General Laudohn was among the guests, and sat down at the bottom of the table. the King of Prussia who observed it, called him, and said, "Come up here, General Laudohn, I would always rather see you at my side than opposite me." But JEU D'ESPRIT ON GENTLEMEN INSCRIB- "Fair Albion smiling sees her son depart, "This modest bard, like many a bard unknown, DURING Mr. Turner's late voyage to the Levant, a Cephaloniste doctor came one evening to take punch with him, when he was at Tripolizza, and amused his party with the story of a Turkish priest whom he had lately heard in a coffeehouse boasting of having killed eighty-four evil spirits, by whom he had been infested. "But," said his acquaintances, to whom he was relating his exploits, "from eighty-General." "I am not," this excellent Prince used to say, "for a commonwealth after my death, nor will I be a Doge of Venice whilst I live." TURKISH JEALOUSY. In the environs of Constantinople, the Sultan has a beautiful palace, situated in a delightful plain and two or three times in a year his women are all brought to the plain to enjoy air and exercise. On these occasions the eunuchs are posted on all the hills that overtop it, lest any one should obtain a distant view of these objects of jealousy. During one of these fêtes, a Greek, galloping along the road, which, on a sudden turn, skirted the hill where it overlooked the plain, obtained, involuntarily, a momentary glimpse of the womeu; he would instantly have retired, but before he could effect his retreat he was cut in pieces by the eunuchs. ANECDOTE OF GEORGE I. On this King arriving at St. James's, he was shown the park and canal, &c. belonging to himself. Lord Chetwynd, the ranger of the park, sent his Majesty next day, a brace of carp from the above-mentioned canal; for which the King was told, it would be expected he should give the servant five guineas. "This is a strange country," said George, "The ranger of my park, has sent me a fine brace of carp out of my own canal, and I must give five guineas to his servant, for my own carp taken from the canal in my own park!" ANECDOTE OF THE DUKE OF CUMBER. LAND, SON OF GEORGE II. ONE day during his childhood, the Duke, then Prince William, had displeased the Queen, and she sent him up to his chamber. When he appeared again he was very sullen. "William," said the Queen, ing." produced as a witness, at the age of ninety, at Westminster Hall, in a civil suit. From Westminster Hall he had the curiosity to go into the House of Lords; and standing at the bar, Lord Bathurst, then one of Queen Anne's twelve new created peers, went to the bar and conversed with Mr. Cromwell; and happening to ask him how long it was since he had been in that house; "Never my Lord," answered Richard, "since I sat in that chair," pointing to the throne. ANECDOTES OF SUPERSTITIOUS CRE DULITY. OUR Henry IV. exhorted all his subjects, in four proclamations, to apply themselves with the utmost diligence to the discovery of the philosopher's stone: that by such means the nation might be relieved from its debts. He encouraged the clergy in particular to this pursuit, by the representation "that as they were so fortunate as to transform bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, it would be very easy for them to convert a base metal into one of nobler quality." No sovereign was more addicted to alchymy than the Emperor Rodolph II.; he was wholly absorbed in it, and therefore, invited to his court the oracle of the art, the celebrated Sendivog, to assist him in his operations. The Emperor Leopold 1. had also many of these artists about him. Augustus, Elector of Saxony, was reputed to have made greater proficiency in alchymy than any of these Princes. The Margrave John, of Brandenburg, received from his favourite study the surname of the Alchymist, and he was prouder of this title than of the electoral diguity. DIGNIFIED FEMALE FORTITUDE IN THE EXAMPLE OF MADAME BARNEVELOT. WHEN the virtuous and venerable Bar "What have you been doing?"- "Read-nevelot, under the mock form of a trial "Reading what?"-"The Bible." "And what did you read there?"-" About Jesus and Mary."-"And what about them?"—"Why, that Jesus said to Mary, woman! what hast thou to do with me?" ANECDOTE OF RICHARD CROMWELL. RICHARD CROMWELL, who succeeded his father Oliver in the protectorship, was and a legal conviction, fell a sacrifice to the political intrigues of Maurice, Prince of Orange, the latter declared that a pardon should be granted him if requested by his family; but neither he nor they would condescend to an act that would imply his guilt, and he was executed. Some time after a real conspiracy against the life of Maurice was entered into by two sons of this excellent man, one son escaped, but the other was condemned to die. On this occasion his high minded mother threw herself at the feet of Maurice to beg his life, when the Prince expressed his surprise that she would stoop to such a request for her son, after having refused to ask the pardon of her husband.—“I did not ask pardon for my husband, because he was innocent!" she replied with a noble composure; "I ask it for my son, because he is guilty." Such is the consistent and regu lated pride of principle. THE CORRESPONDENCE OF CAROLINE. LETTER X. Bury, Suffolk, Oct. 1, 1811. You were perfectly correct, my dear sister; this letter of Beauchamp's had such an effect upon my health as to prevent my writing before to you; for undetermined how to act with regard to one I so dearly loved, I worked myself up into such a complete state of irritability, that at length, it threw me into a fit of illness. You chide me, my dear Margaret, for my silence, but you will, I am sure, forgive me when I tell you that I should probably have recovered much sooner than I did had not my over anxiety to relieve you from suspense contributed to retard that care, which, for your sake, 1 was so desirous to hasten. I will, however, while assuring you that I am very much myself again, lay before you this tremendous letter, which, perhaps, did I reject all ideas of propriety, should have been the harbinger of joy, rather than perplexity and ennui; courage then and you shall read: SIR ORLANDO BEAUCHAMP, TO MISS MATRAVERS. MADAM,-1 scarce need, I believe, inform you that there are two kinds of regard which are felt by one sex for the other; one founded on convenience only, and the other in a fancied selection of some object, which alone seems necessary to the hap. piness of the other; mine, unfortunately, is the latter case. I say unfortunately, because it compels me to smother every feeling of pride, without any apparent hope or recompense, and to endeavour by every means, however humiliating, to attain, that object, without which, life seems barely worth possessing. Must not my humiliating situation appear to me in its full form, when I am even now obliged to counterfeit the hand of a stranger, to gain. the attention of one whom I had hoped From was not more endeared to me, than I to her, and to ask of her to be forgiven without the least knowledge of an offence. your conduct, Madam, in Monmouthshire, I have nothing to hope for, but that you will be offended at this language from one, who you may now conceive has no right to speak in such terms to you.— Alas! Madam, the most cruel taskmaster allows his slave, at least, to complain, while he revenges himself by bestowing some further cruelty. Do not, my dear lady, do not ask me how I dare make an avowal of my love for you, but ask yourself if there was never in my behaviour something more attentive than what might be the result of mere esteem; and then having asked yourself if you were not fully conscious of this, demand of your heart if you did not acknowledge this preference, and why it suffered me to continue this behaviour, unless it meant to return my passion; for never will I believe that you could trifle with the misery of another, for any selfish gratification. Oh! Caroline, Caroline! for I can no longer proceed in this constrained manner, tell me how it is, when I live only in your presence, how is it you can banish yourself from one who so dearly, so tenderly, and respectfully loves you; subjecting yourself to a thousand mortifications from an unfeeling world. Oh! it angers me to madness to think how daringly you have tempted fortune. Tell me then, I conjure you, tell me, or at least tell your sister to inform me, why you withdraw from me, why you have separated from one who long since gave you his heart, without the BEAUCHAMP. There, my dear sister, there is this letter which has so terribly agonised me, and has kept up such conflicting emotions in my breast, so as to drive out every other consideration; yet every other consideration seems to hang upon it. I know, my dear sister, how you would advise me to act with all that candour I am so ready to employ. But, oh! this man almost drives me out of my senses. Shall I confess I have still a regard for him, that I cannot, which I find but too true, give my heart to another? Why then, the way is clear, for this 1 Beauchamp, he is sure of me, and why should he care further about me?— Surely, my dear papa had a stronger reason for his dislike, than what was merely caused by absence; and his cross old lord of a father, can I ever condescend to enter a family where the principal branch of it dislikes me; besides, he will never consent that his son should marry the daughter of a man who was a servitor in the same college in which he was a gentleman commoner. It is very true he could not leave his father at such a time, and yet I could almost think that he would never have found me in a better humour to pardon disobedience to a father; perhaps my poor papa would have given him his blessing, and then no compunctious visitings could have annoyed us. Not to answer his letter you will say would be very rude, and yet in what manner am I to set about, or rather to compose one? You alone can tell how he became acquainted with my address; and yet, alas! if I were to pour out all my indignation to you, foolish girl as you are, you would only laugh at it. How unhappy are people circumstanced as I am-never be lieved in any of my most serious protestations. Alas! this courtship is like a game chess; and mine is an adversary who will require my whole attention. I must look sharp about me, move and then look again or he pops his castle or queen upon my poor queen, and I am undone. Even my anxiety may make him a stale mate, and he will march out with all the honours of war. of Oh! Margaret, it is now that I feel my unfortunate situation, the dissimilarity of our situations in life requires so much the more caution with regard to Beauchamp, for who will give me the credit of sincerity if I withdraw. Alas! my dear papa, may I be suffered to act as you would wish me, do you look down upon me; alas! you cannot and be happy, for were you to witness my struggles, heaven could scarce be heaven to thee. Adieu, Margaret, my mind is not yet made up, when it is I will inform you; till then, I remain your affectionate sister, CAROLINE MATRAVERS. |