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"I am now (fays he) worth eight handred pounds, but fhall never be fo

happy as when I was not worth a farthing *."

Some Account of the Adventures of Cecilia, daughter of Achmet III. Emperor of the Turks. Extracted from Cecile Fille d'Achmet III. Empereur de Turcs, &c. 2 vol. 127120.

THE

HE adventures of the daughter of Achmet are introduced by an advertisement, in which we are informed by the editor, a man of veracity and credit; that, however extraordinary and romantic the circumftances and events which are related in these volumes may appear, they are, in general, ftrictly true. He has alfo informed the public, in a letter addreff ed to the editors of the Journal de Paris, that the lady is ftill alive, in Paris, and notwithstanding her advanced age, enjoys a good ftate of health. Without labouring to refute, or to establish the truth of thefe par. ticulars, and, without entering into the reflections of the editor, we fhall lay before our readers a fhort detail of the interefting adventures of this Turkish Princefs.

One half of the first volume is taken up with an account of the misfortunes of Emilia, a great part of which are unconnected with the hiftory of the daughter of Achmet. Emily was a native of Génes; as well as her lover, whofe name was Salmoni, The lovers were together in a pleasureboat, on the fea, one fine Summer evening, when fome Turkifh pirates, who were lying on the coaft with a view to intercept fome prize, were at

tracted by the young man's finging, and made up to them, with full fail. Salmoni gallantly defended his lovely Emily; but, after receiving a number of wounds, was left for dead in his boat; and Emilia was conveyed on board the veffel of the pirates. While Emilia was carried to Turkey, and, on account of her beauty and accomplishments, was purchased for the fervice and amusement of the Sultan. Salmoni recovered, and spent ten years in an unfuccefsful fearch for his miftrefs through all the fea-port towns in Europe. After ten years inquiry, learning that he was at Conftantinople, he undertakes a voyage thither, and, on his arrival, difguifes himfelf in the Turkish habit. By means of an Icoglan, or page of the feraglio, who was made to regard Salmoni as the father of Fatme (for that was the name which they had given Emily) the lovers meet and recognize each other. She was then governess to Achmet's infant daughter, who was fix months old; and was high in favour with the Emperor and the Sultana, having been very ferviceable on the late occafion of the Sultana's lying-in, by means of fome medical skill which fhe had acquired from her father, a physician in Génes.

The

* Gent. Mag. This article is fucceeded by the following letter to the Publisher. SIR, Dublin, Feb. 25. "IN the course of a late converfation with a nobleman of the first confequence and information in this kingdom, he affured me, that Mr Benjamin Holloway, of Middleton Stony, affured him, fome time ago, that he knew for fact, that the ce lebrated romance of Robinfon Crufoe was really written by the E. of Oxford, when confined in the Tower of London; that his Lordfhip gave the manufcript to Da niel Defoe, who frequently vifited him during his confinement; and that Defoe, having afterwards added the fecond volume, published the whole as his own production. This anecdote I would not venture to fend to your valuable Magazine, if I did not think my information good, and imagine, it might be acceptable to your numerous readers, notwithstanding the work has heretofore been generally attributed to the latter.

W. W."

The authority which the monarch, in reward of her fervices on that occafion, had given her over all the flaves of the feraglio, afforded her eafy means of making her escape. With a view to that, he ordered the boftangi, or mafter of the gardens, to raife, to an equal height with the wall, a feefaw which was there; that from it, as fhe told him, fhe might enjoy the grand view of the whole city. At the fame time fhe wrote to Salmoni, to procure a ladder and a steel-yard, to make fure of a veffel, and, when all was ready, to wait behind the gardenwall. Salmoni failed not, after taking the neceffary precautions, to convey a billet to his miftrefs, in which he fixed the night, and the hour for their departure. The Sultan enters her apartment while fhe is reading Salmoni's billet. She has just time to throw the paper into a vafe of porphyry (that circumftance is, by no means, indifferent.) The hour approaches. Her breaft is filled with a thousand anxieties. These arife not from the confideration of the part which she has determined to act; bat from her unwillingness to leave, in the bofom of idolatry, a child whom she can now fo eafily introduce to a participation of the bleffings of Christianity. As long as fhe had thought only of making her own efcape, he had paid no attention to the care of her fortune; but, now, regarding it as her duty, to fecure from indigence the child whom the was going to carry with her, the haftily collects her own jewels, as well as all that Turkish magnificence had lavished on the daughter of Achmet. The hour arrives. She mounts the feefaw, which is inftantly fixed by means of the fteel-yard. A ladder is held up to her, and fhe goes down. A perfon, wrapped in a grey cloke, with a flouched hat on his head, receives her in his arms. She, believing him to be her lover, locks him in hers. At that inftant, another man appears, and plunges his fword in the breast of

the former. Fatme falls down, befide them, in a fwoon. The captain of Salmoni's veffel runs up, on hearing the noise, takes off the hat of the perfon who was killed, and, without faying more than, "it is not he," orders Fatme to be carried on board, and fets fail, with all poffible fpeed, for fear of being purfued and detained. Fatme is ignorant of the fate of her lover; but her first care, on arriving at Génes, is, to have the daughter of the Grand Signior baptized by the name of Cecilia. She herself now recovers the name of Emilia. She e ducates Cecilia in the Christian religion. On her reaching the age of fifteen fhe informs her of her high birth, and carries her through all the courts of Europe; in which the is received with the honours due to her illuftrious rank. At Rome, Emilia has the happinefs of again meeting Salmoni. The perfon who had been killed, was only a failor: the fame that had affifted Salmoni in finding Fatme. This man had hoped to make his fortune by difcovering her intended flight to the Sultan; and a maid, belonging to the feraglio, with whom he had engaged to fhare the reward of his treachery, having got into her hands the billet which was mentioned above, had erafed twelve, the hour fixed by Salmoni, and had written in its place eleven; fo that the failor had time for the execution of his purpofe. Cecilia falls in love with a Knight of Malta, whom the interests of his family had obliged to take the vows of the order. A young duke falls in love with her; fhe makes him her friend; but he can obtain no dearer name, because her heart is already engaged. Salmoni marries Emilia, and they go to Paris. Cecilia entertains the Prince

father of the chevalier her lover. He, too, falls in love with her, and withes to make her his wife. She represents to him all the inconveniencies attending fuch an alliance; particularly the injury which he would thus do his

eldest

eldest fon, to whom he had thought it neceffary to facrifice his fecond. She lofes a great part of her fortune by the knavery of a banker in whofe hands Emilia had placed it. From fixty thousand livres, her yearly income is reduced to ten thousand.

In the mean time, Emilia falls fick. Salmoni afks Cecilia, who was her conftant attendant during her illnefs, to take a walk on the boulevards, in order to enjoy the fresh air, and divert her anxiety. They go out together. She feels a fudden indifpofition. He propofes going into a coffee-houfe. It was yet early in the day, and therefore they found fcarce any body there. After taking fome refreshment, Cecilia happens to caft her eyes on a gazette, and reads, that Achmet III. is depofed. She faints away, and, on recovering from her fwoon, vows to go to confole him, and to fhare his afflictions.

Emilia dies. The Prince becomes more urgent, and lefs respectful. Cecilia, determined, by thefe last events, not to delay her journey, fets out alone for Fontainbleau, to folicit a paffport, and to make her acknowledgments to the minifter for the attention which the Court of France had paid her. Returning at midnight, her carriage is ftopt in the foreft. A well-dreffed man perfuades her to go into a voiture (drawn by fix horfes) without obliging him to ufe violence. He is the Prince Cecilia utters a fhriek of terror and indignation. Another voiture paffes. It is the young Duke's. He recollects the daughter of Achmet, and inftantly engages in her defence. A third voiture arrives. The gentleman within fprings out. He is the Chevalier. His father iets him know that the Duke is going to deprive him of his thiftrefs, and that he is forced to draw his fword against him in defence of his deareft interefts. The young man occupies his father's place, and leaves the Duke bathed in his blood. Cecilia, who had been all

VOL. VII. No 40.

this time in a fwoon, is put into a carriage, and conducted to the Prince's hotel. As foon as the found herself alone with him, drawing two piftols, which the recollected having in her pockets, the turns one of them upon herfelf, and prefenting the other to him, fays, "The leaft rudeness or violence on your part, fhall occafion the death of us both." The aftonished Prince allows her to retire. She goes off with the Chevalier, Salmoni, and Icoglan, who, in France, paffes by the name of his employment in the feraglio as his proper name. At Toulon, the Chevalier receives the news of the death of his father and his eldest brother. He agrees with Cecilia, that, while fhe makes her voyage to Turky, he fhall folicit, of the Pope and the Grand Mafter of Malta, the favour of being released from his vows. Icoglan remains with his friend. Salmoni accompanies Cecilia to Turky, and is flain, on his arrival there, by the Janif faries. Cecilia difplays the fetfa, an undeniable proof of her royal birth, being borne by none but the family of the Sultan. The Turks proftrate. themfelves before it: they conduct her to the palace of her father. Mahomet V. receiving a defcription of her beauty, conceives a paflion for her. Soon after this, the Beglierbey of Natolia, the friend and confident of the Emperor, is employed to inform her of Mahomet's paflion, and to threaten her with violence or punishment if the fhould refufe to yield to his defires. "What is it in my appearance," fays fhe to this meffenger, " that pleafts him moft." Being anfwered, that it was her fine hair, which adorned all that profufion of other charms, "go,' fays fhe, (feizing her hair, and cutting it off above her neck) "bear to thy mafter this object of his love, and tell him that a woman, capable of fuch a facrifice, knows no mafter but heaven and her own heart." Achmet urges her to return to France, and to marry the Chevalier. Mahomet, perM m

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ceiving her virtue and fortitude to be invincible, commands the highest honours to be paid her at her departure. On her arrival at Toulon, fhe meets with the Lieutenant of the Chevalier's galley, from whom he learns that the vengeance of the Duke's parents has purfued her lover ever fince her departure; that he was killed in a duel; and that Icoglan, who had been moft affectionately attached to him, could not bear to furvive him. Cecilia having now fcarce a friend remaining in the world, and finding herself reduced almoft to poverty, the confolations of religion at length foothed her, under the remembrance of her misfortunes, "I looked around me," fays fhe, "Paris appeared to be the only place where I could hide myfelf from the eyes of all the world. Five hundred ducats, and the diamond which I had received from my father, were all that remained to me. And this fmall fum, after being confiderably diminished by my journey to Paris, would be far from fufficient to enable me to enter any religious houfe in a manner fuitable to my birth. I chofe rather to conceal myfelf from every eye. I hired a lodging fuitable to my prefent circumftances and the daughter of Achmet III. at a distance from the thrones of the earth, at a distance from wealth and grandeur, which too often bring on the ftorms which harrafs life, has spent her days with peace

:

and quiet in the bofom of obfcurity and virtue; and the defcendant of thofe monarchs whofe power has for ages made fo diftinguifhed a figure on the earth, has not always enjoyed-even the bread of poverty. The death of my illuftrious father, who died in the year 1763, after arriving at a good old age, and attaining the greatest glory, has occafioned the only lively fenfation of grief which I have felt fince the lofs of the Chevalier. God has bleft my fortitude. Born in the year 1710, I have lived to fee the ift of January 1786; and I now calmly expect that death, which muft bring a recompence for all thofe amazing and diftressful varieties of fortune which I have experienced through the courfe of life."

Journal de Paris, &c.

The Fetfa is a large piece of yellów filk, on which are embroidered, in letters of gold, the names of the Sultan, of the child, and of its mother, the day and hour, and its birth, together with certain paffages from the Alcoran. The children of the Sultans are clothed with the fetfa immediately after their birth, and it is always held a facred and authentic proof of their royal defcent. At the fight of it every Muffulman is obliged, by their law, to proftrate himself on the ground, and to defend with life the person who poffeffes it.

Advantages of a Talent for difcerning Times and Seafons*.

THERE is a

HERE is a certain delicacy.

in some men's nature, which, though not abfolutely to be termed a moral attribute, is nevertheless fo grateful to fociety at large, and fo recommendatory of thofe who poffefs it, that even the best and worthieft characters cannot be truly pleafing without it: I know not how to defcribe it better, than by faying it confifts in a happy difcernment of times and feafons.

Though this engaging talent cannot pofitively be called a virtue, yet it feems to be the refult of many virtuous and refined endowments of the mind which produces it; for when we fee any man fo tenderly confiderate of our feelings, as to put afide his own for our accommodation and repofe, and to confult opportunities with a refpectful attention to our ease and leifure, it is natural to us to think favourably From the Obferver.

of

of fuch a difpofition; and although in free converfation, that is not ma much of his difcernment may be the thematically true; they will confute a effect of a good judgment and proper jeft by fyllogifm, canvafs a merry tale knowledge of the world, yet there by crofs-examination and dates, work must be a great proportion of fenfibi- every common calculation by X the unlity, candour, diffidence, and natural known quantity, and, in the feftive falmodefty in the compofition of a facul- lies of imagination, convict the witty ty fo conciliating and fo graceful. A speaker of falfe grammar, and nonfuit man may have many good qualities, all the merriment of the table. and yet if he is unacquainted with the world, he will rarely be found to understand thofe apt and happy moments of which I am now fpeaking; for it is a knowledge not to be gained without a nice and accurate obfervation of mankind; and even when that obfervation has given it, men, who are wanting in the natural good qualities above defcribed, may indeed avail themfelves of fuch occafions to ferve a purpose of their own, but without a good heart no man will apply his experience to general practice.

But as it is not upon theories that I wish to employ this paper, I fhall now devote the remainder of my attention to fuch rules and obfervations as occur to me upon the subject of the times and feafons.

The man of form and ceremony, who has fhaped his manners to the model of what is commonly called The Old Court, is another grand defaulter against times and feafons: His entrances and exits are to be performed with a stated regularity; he measures his devoirs with an exactitude that befpeaks him a correct interpreter of The Red Book; pays his compliments with a minutenefs, that leaves no one of your family unnamed, enquires after the health of your child who is dead, and defires to be kindly remembered to your wife, from whom you are divorced : Nature formed him in ftrait lines, habit has stiffened him into an unrelenting rigidity, and no familiarity can bend him out of the upright. The uneducated fquire of ruftic manners forms a contraft to this character, but he is altogether as great an intruder upon times and feafons, and his total want of form operates to the annoyance of fociety as effectually as the other's excefs. There cannot be in human nature a more terrible thing than vulgar familiarity; a low-bred fellow, who affects to put himself at his ease among his fuperiors, and be pleafant company to them, is a nuifance to fociety: there is nothing fo ill understood by the world in general as familiarity; if it was not for the terror, which men have, of the very troublesome confequences of condefcenfion to their inferiors, there would not be a hundredth part of that pride and holding-back amongst the higher ranks, of which the low are fo apt to complain. How few men do we meet with, who, when the heart is open and the channel free, know how to keep their courfe within the buoys M m 2

Men who, in the fafhionable phrafe, live out of the world, have a certain aukwardness about them, which is for ever putting them out of their place in fociety, whenever they are occafionally drawn into it. If it is their ftudies which have fequeftered them from the world, they contract an air of pedantry, which can hardly be endured in any mixed company without expofing the object of it to ridicule; for the very effence of this contracted habit confists in an utter ignorance of times and feafons. Most of that clafs of men who are occupied in the education of youth, and not a few of the young men themselves, who are educated by them, are of this defeription: We meet with many of Jack Lizard's caft in the Spectator, who will learnedly maintain, there is no heat in fire. There is a difputatious precifion in thefe people, which lets nothing pafs

and

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