a hundred gold escudos, that may be sown in the belt of a petticoat not worth two reals, and kept there as safe as a common-right on the pastures of Estremadura! And should any one of our sons, grandsons, or kinsfolk, fall by any mishap into the hands of justice, will any thing whispered in the ears of the judge or the scrivener, have such an effect as these escudos crying to their pockets? Three times, for three different offences, have I been just about to be set upon the ass to be whipped: from one flogging I was delivered by a silver cup, from another by a string of pearls, and from the third by forty eight-real pieces which I'd got changed for quartos, giving twenty reals to the changer. Remember, my child, that ours is a very perilous calling, full of great stumbling-blocks and grievous straits; and no succour will avail us so quickly as the invincible arms of the great Philip: a doubloon of two faces will brighten in our behalf the dismal one of the attorney, and of all the ministers of death, who are so many harpies to us poor gipsies, plucking and flaying us with more pleasure than they do a highwayman: no matter how ragged and miserable we look, they'll never believe us to be poor, but say we're like the jackets of Belmonte's scavengers, dirty and greasy and full of doubloons."

Preciosa here interrupted her with, "Pray, my dear grandmother, say no more, or you'll bring forward so many laws in favour of keeping the money, that you'll exhaust those of the Emperors: keep it, and much good may it do you; and God grant you may bury it in a grave whence it may never again return to the light of the sun, and that it may never have occasion to do so. It will be necessary to give something to our companions there, who must be tired of waiting for us.

66

They'll as much see any of these pieces," replied the old woman, as they see the Grand Turk now.-This good young gentleman will see if he has any silver left-or any copper-and I'll divide it among them-for a little will satisfy them."

"O, yes, I have some," said the gallant; and he took from his pocket three eight-real pieces, which he divided among the three gipsy girls; and with which they were as delighted, says our author, as the manager of a Spanish playhouse of that day might be when, in competition with some other manager, he saw himself chalked up at the corner of the streets, Victor! Victor!

It was resolved, as has been said, to meet again at the expiration of a week; and that when the young gentleman became a gipsy, he should be called Senor Andres, to distinguish him from other gipsies of the same name. Don Juan or Senor Andres, as we must afterwards call him, did not venture to embrace Preciosa; but looking wistfully at her, and leaving his heart behind him, he returned to Madrid; and they, well satisfied with this encounter, went thither also. (Continued at page 89.)

THE

MONASTERY OF ALCOBACA.

[For the following interesting description we are indebted to Mr. Beckford's recent volume of "Recollections of an excursion to the Monasteries of Alcobaca and Batalha."]

We had no sooner hove in sight, and we loomed large, than a most tremendous ring of bells of extraordinary power, announced our speedy arrival. A special aviso, or broad hint from the secretary of state, recommending these magnificent monks to receive the Grand Prior and his companions with peculiar graciousness, the whole community, including fathers, friars, and subordinates, at least four hundred strong, were drawn up in grand spiritual array on the vast platform before the monastery, to bid us welcome. their head, the abbot himself, in his costume of high almoner of Portugal, advanced to give us a cordial embrace.

At

It was quite delectable to witness with what cooings and comfortings the Lord Abbot of Alcobaca greeted his right reverend brethren of Aviz and St. Vincent's-turtle-doves were never more fondlesome, at least in outward appearance. Preceded by these three graces of holiness, I entered the spacious, massive, and somewhat austere Saxon-looking church. All was gloom, except where the perpetual lamps burning before the high altar diffused a light most solemn and religious-(inferior twinkles from side chapels and chantries are not worth mentioning). To this altar my high clerical conductors repaired, whilst the full harmonious tones of several stately organs, accompanied by the choir, proclaimed that they were in the act of adoring the real Presence.

Whilst these devout prostrations were performing, I lost not a moment in visiting the sepulchral chapel, where lie interred Pedro the Just and his beloved Inez. The light which reached this

solemn recess of a most solemn edifice was so subdued and hazy, that I could hardly distinguish the elaborate sculpture of the tomb, which reminded me, both as to design and execution, of the Beauchamp monument at Warwick, so rich in fretwork and imagery.

Just as I was giving way to the affecting reveries which such an object could not fail of exciting in a bosom the least susceptible of romantic impressions, in came the grand priors hand in hand, all three together. "To the kitchen," said they in perfect unison,—“ to the kitchen, and that immediately; you will then judge whether we have been wanting in zeal to regale you."

Such a summons, so conveyed, was irresistible; the three prelates led the way to, I verily believe, the most distinguished temple of gluttony in all Europe. What Glastonbury may have been in its palmy state, I cannot answer; but my eyes never beheld in any modern convent of France, Italy, or Germany, such an enormous space dedicated to culinary purposes. Through the centre of the immense and nobly-groined hall, not less than sixty feet in diameter, ran a brisk rivulet of the clearest water, flowing through pierced wooden reservoirs, containing every sort and size of the finest river fish. On one side, loads of game and venison were heaped up; on the other, vegetables and fruit in endless variety. Beyond a long line of stoves, extended a row of ovens, and close to them hillocks of wheaten flour, whiter than snow, rocks of sugar, jars of the purest oil, and pastry in vast abundance, which a numerous tribe of lay brothers and their attendants were rolling out and puffing up into an hundred different shapes, singing all the while as blithely as larks in a corn-field. My servants, and those of their reverend excellencies the two priors, were standing by in the full glee of witnessing these hospitable preparations, as well pleased, and as much flushed, as if they had been just returned from assisting at the marriage at Cana in Galilee. "There," said the Lord Abbot," We shall not starve: God's bounties are great, it is fit we should enjoy them." (By the bye, I thought this all allegro, contrasted with the penseroso of scarecrow convents, quite delightful.)"

I rose early, slipped out of my pomp. ous apartment, strayed about endless corridors-not a soul stirring. Looked into a gloomy hall, much encumbered with gilded ornaments, and grim with the ill

sculptured effigies of kings; and another immense chamber, with white walls covered with pictures in black lacquered frames, most hideously unharmonious.

One portrait, the full size of life, by a very ancient Portuguese artist, named Vasquez, attracted my minute attention. It represented no less interesting a personage than St. Thomas á Becket, and looked the character in perfection;-lofty in stature and expression of countenance; pale, but resolute, like one devoted to death in his great cause; the very being Dr. Lingard has portrayed in his admirable History.

From this chamber I wandered down several flights of stairs to a cloister of the earliest Norman architecture, having in the centre a fountain of very primitive form, spouting forth clear water abundantly into a marble basin. Twisting and straggling over this uncouth mass of sculpture, are several orange-trees, gnarled land crabbed, but covered with fruit and flowers, their branches grotesque and fantastic, exactly such as a Japanese would delight in, and copy on his caskets and screens; their age most venerable, for the traditions of the convent assured me that they were the very first imported from China into Portugal. There was some comfort in these objects; every other in the place looked dingy and dismal, and steeped in a green and yellow melancholy.

On the damp, stained, and mossy walls, I noticed vast numbers of sepulchral inscriptions (some nearly effaced) to the memory of the knights slain at the battle of Aljubarota: I gave myself no trouble to make them out, but continuing my solitary ramble, visited the refectory, a square of seventy or eighty feet, begloomed by dark-coloured painted windows, and disgraced by tables covered with not the cleanest or least unctuous linen in the world.

ANECDOTES OF AN APE.

[In a recent publication, we have found a very amusing description of a newly discovered species of ape, whose demeanour on shipboard forms a most entertaining chapter, which we would gladly insert entire, were it not for its great length. The annexed portion will give an idea of the creature's drolleries.]

There was a degree of intelligence in the animal, beyond what is usually termed common instinct. These little miniatures of men, (as they are satirically termed), are said to possess more sagacity

than any other animals, and to be a close connecting link between the "powerful lord of the creation," and creatures of an inferior genius. If it be true, as I have heard asserted, that intelligence is written in legible characters on the os frontis of the monkey tribe, I beg to add, that mischief and cunning also beam in their eye.

One instance of a very close approximation to, if it may not be considered an exercise of, the reasoning faculty, occurred in this animal. Once or twice I lectured him on taking away my soap continually from the washing-place, which he would remove, for his amusement, from that place, and leave it about the cabin. One morning I was writing, the ape being present in the cabin, when casting my eyes toward him, I saw the little fellow taking the soap. I watched him, without his perceiving that I did so; and he occasionally would cast a furtive glance toward the place where I sat. I pretended to write; he, seeing me busily occupied, took the soap, and moved away with it in his paw. When he had walked half the length of the cabin, I spoke quietly, without frightening him. The instant he found I saw him, he walked back again, and deposited the soap nearly in the same place from whence he had taken it. There was certainly something more than instinct in that action: he evidently betrayed a consciousness of having done wrong, both by his first and last actions;-and what is reason, if that is not an exercise of it?

He was playful, but preferred children to adults. He became particularly attached to a little Papuan child (Elau, a native of Erromanga, one of the New Hebrides group) who was on board, and whom, it is not improbable, he may in some degree have considered as having an affinity to his species. They were often seen sitting near the capstan, the animal with his long arm round her neck, lovingly eating biscuit together.

She would lead him about by his long arms, like an elder leading a younger child; and it was the height of the grotesque, to witness him running round the capstan, pursued by, or pursuing, the child. He would waddle along, in the erect posture, at a rapid pace, sometimes aiding himself by his knuckles; but when fatigued, he would spring aside, seize hold of the first rope he came to, and, ascending a short distance, regard himself as safe from pursuit.

In a playful manner he would roll on deck with the child, as if in a mock

combat, pushing with his feet, (in which action he possessed great muscular power), entwining his long arms around her, and pretending to bite; or, seizing a rope, he would swing towards her, and when efforts were made to seize him, would elude the grasp by swinging away; or he would, by way of changing the plan of attack, drop suddenly on her from the ropes aloft, and then engage in various playful antics. He would play in a similar manner with adults; but finding them usually too strong and rough for him, he preferred children, giving up his games with them, if any adults joined in the sport at the same time.

There were also on board the ship several small monkeys, with whom Ungka was desirous of forming interesting conversaziones, to introduce a social character among the race-wile away the tedious hours, which pass but tardily in a ship, and dissipate the monotony of the voyage: to this the little monkeys would not accede; they treated him as an outcast, and all cordially united to repel the approaches of the "little man in black," by chattering, and various other hostile movements peculiar to them.

Ungka, thus repelled in his kind endeavours to establish something like sociality among them, determined in his own mind to annoy and punish them for their impudence; so, the next time they united, as before, in a body, on his approach, he watched the opportunity, and when one was off his guard, seized a rope, and swinging towards him, caught him by the tail, and hauled away upon it, much to the annoyance of the owner, who had no idea that such a retaliation was to take place; he continued pulling upon it, as if determined to detach it, until the agility and desperation of the monkey, at being so treated, obliged him to relinquish his hold. But it not unfrequently happened, that he made his way up the rigging, dragging the monkey by the tail after him, and thus made him follow his course most unwillingly. If in his ascent he required both hands, he would pass the tail of his captive into the prehensile power of his foot. was the most grotesque scene imaginable, and will long remain in the remembrance of those who witnessed it, and was performed by Ungka with the most perfect gravity of countenance, while the poor suffering monkey grinned, chattered, twisted about, making the most strenuous efforts to escape from his opponent's grasp. His countenance, at all

It

times a figure of fun, now had terror added to it, increasing the delineation of beauty; and when the poor beast had been dragged some distance up the rigging, Ungka, tired of his labour, would suddenly let go his hold on the tail, when it would require some skill on the part of the monkey to seize a rope, to prevent his receiving a compound fracture by a rapid descent on deck. Ungka, having himself no caudal extremity, knew well that he was perfectly free from any retaliation on the part of his oppo

nents.

As this mode of treatment was far from being either amusing or instructive to the monkeys, they assembled together in an executive council, where it was determined, that in future the "big black stranger," who did not accord with them in proportions, and who demeaned himself by walking erect, wearing no tail, and was, in several other respects, guilty of unmonkey-like conduct, should be for the future avoided, and treated with contempt; and should he again think proper to assault any of the body, they should all unite, and punish him for his violent conduct. Ungka, when again he made any attempt to renew his amusement of pulling tails, met with such a warm reception from the little creatures assembled, that he found it necessary to give up tale bearing, and devote himself to other pursuits. He had, however, such an inclination to draw out tales, that being obliged, from "peculiar circumstances," to relinquish those of the monkeys, he cultivated the friendship of a little clean pig that ran about the deck, and taking his tail in hand, endeavoured, by frequent pulling, to reduce it from a curled to a straight form; but all his efforts were in vain, although piggy did not express any ill-feeling at his kind endeavours.

Although every kindness was shewn to him by the officers and crew, and sweetmeats and other niceties were given to him by them by way of bribes, to engage his confidence and good opinion, yet he would not permit himself to be taken in the arms, or caressed familiarly by any person on board during the voyage, except by the commander, the third officer, and myself; but with any of the children he would readily gambol. It was a strange fact, that he in particular avoided all those who wore large bushy whiskers.

MISTIMED SERVICE. "BEFORE I skip back to the point from which my own flea and the Poictiers flea have led me, I must tell a story of an English lady, who was not so fortunate as Pasquier's accomplished friend. This lady, who lived in the country, and was about to have a large dinner party, was ambitious of making as great a display as her husband's establishment, a tolerably large one, could furnish: so that there might seem to be no lack of servants, a great lad, who had been employed only in farm work, was trimmed and dressed for the occasion, and ordered to take his stand behind his mistress's chair, with strict injunctions not to stir from the place, nor do anything unless she directed him; the lady well knowing, that although no footman could make a better appearance as a piece of still life, some awkwardness would be inevitable, if he were put in motion. Accordingly, Thomas having thus been duly drilled, and repeatedly enjoined, took his post at the head of the table behind his mistress, and for a while he found sufficient amusement in looking at the grand setout, and staring at the guests: when he was weary of this, and of an inaction to which he was so little used, his eyes began to pry about nearer objects. It was at a time when our ladies followed the French fashion of having the back and shoulders, under the name of the neck, uncovered much lower than accords either with the English climate, or with old English notions;—a time when, as Landor expresses it, the usurped dominion of neck had extended from the ear downwards, almost to where mermaids become fish. This lady was in the height, or lowness, of that fashion; and between her shoulder-blades, in the hollow of the back, not far from the confines where nakedness and clothing met, Thomas espied what Pasquier had seen upon the neck of Mademoiselle des Roches. The guests were too much engaged with the business and courtesies of the table, to see, what must have been worth seeing→ the transfiguration produced in Thomas's countenance by delight, when he saw so fine an opportunity of shewing himself attentive, and making himself useful. The lady was too much occupied with her company to feel the flea; but to her horror she felt the great finger and thumb of Thomas upon her back, and to her greater horror heard him exclaim in exultation, to the still greater amusement of the party-a vlea, a vlea! my lady, ecod I've caucht 'en !"-The Doctor.

PROFESSOR SCHWEIGGER.

THE murder of this individual is thus described by a recent German traveller in Sicily.

"We had heard so much at Naples of the insecurity of the roads, that we thought it necessary to buckle on a cutlass a-piece (couteau de chasse); we were already provided with pistols. When our servant Joseph, a Provençal, heard that we were arming, he asked leave to follow our example, and appeared with a mighty sabre, and a broad leather belt, holding a brace of pistols and store of cartridges, that must have been purloined from some Abruzzo, robber. Fancy to yourself four heavily armed horsemen, one of them moreover loaded with drawing-board and seat, clad in jackets of light stuff, with straw hats of various forms, and you will have a distinct image of our ludicrously, warlike appearance.

But, happily, these bands of robbers have long been exterminated, and even the single stragglers who survived, have now disappeared. The tales of the cowardly Neapolitans vanish into nothing when you reach their scene. The eternally-repeated story of the recent murder of Professor Schweigger of Königsburg, is indeed melancholy enough, but I have here learned that his own imprudence was the chief cause of his misfortune. As a botanist, he naturally travelled on foot; at Palermo, he engaged an insufficiently recommended guide, and, regardless of the indolent southern temperament, dragged him daily about amongst the mountains. Schweigger was, moreover, very short, very ugly, of a scolding, grumbling disposition, and so careless, that he was not even armed with a stick. The night before they were to reach Girgenti (the ancient Agrigentum), he gave his guide a louisd'or to be changed in a little hamlet, where, probably, there was not so much ready money to be found; put himself in a passion at receiving too little change, and threatened the guide with legal punishment at Girgenti. After this quarrel, he set forth with the exasperated Sicilian, dragged him through the most scorching heat till noon, wrangling with him, it is said, the whole time. At length, upon reaching a shady fountain, that bursts from the live rock many steps below the level ground, he heedlessly descended these steps to refresh himself. There the heated and irritated guide knocked him on the head from above with a billet of wood, impelled, perhaps,

by fear of the threatened prosecution, perhaps by a longing for the gold pieces exhibited when the louis-d'or was given, perhaps by rage and revenge for his previous ill-treatment. His golden booty presently betrayed him; he was arrested, confessed everything, and was executed at Girgenti about a year ago. It were surely absurd to draw any conclusion as to the robber propensities of the Sicilians from this transaction: we might even say, that, according to Italian principles of revenge, the guide was in some measure justified, when he slew a menacing and frightful dwarf, in expiation of the injuries received from him.

MISCELLANIES.

INSTINCT OF BIRDS. When the lapwing wants to procure food, it seeks for a worm's cast, and stamps the ground by the side of it with his feet; somewhat in the manner we have often done when a boy, in order to procure worms for fishing. After doing this for a short time, the bird waits for the issue of the worm from the hole, who, alarmed at the shaking of the ground, endeavours to make its escape, when he is immediately seized, and becomes the prey of this ingenious bird. The lapwing also frequents the haunts of moles. These animals, when in pursuit of worms on which they feed, frighten them, and the worm, in attempting to escape, comes to the surface of the ground, where they are seized by the lapwing. The same mode of alarming his prey has been related of the gull.

NATURE AND ART.

Nothing in art can continue to dazzle but so long as we are unaccustomed to the contemplation of it. Let a person dwell for some months, nay, a few weeks, in one of the mansions that has the most struck his fancy, and he will find that by degrees his vision becomes so used to the objects which first enchanted him, that he soon ceases to be sensible of their presence, or to feel aught more than that general complacency excited in the mind by being surrounded by agreeable objects. It is otherwise with the beauties of nature. The more the eye becomes accustomed to behold them, the more pleasure do they convey: each point of view gains a new interest by being contrasted with others; the different periods of the day or season change the appearance, and throw a fresh light over the scene, that prevents its ever becoming monotonous,