called sight.' He added, that the impressions then let in upon his soul would certainly distract him, if he were not so at that present.' At another time he would strive to name the persons he had seen among the crowd after he was couched, and would pretend to speak, in perplexed terms of his own making, of what he in that short time observed. But on the sixth instant it was thought fit to unbind his head, and the young woman whom he loved was instructed to open his eyes accordingly; as well to endear herself to him by such a circumstance, as to moderate his ecstacies by the persuasion of a voice which had so much power over him as hers ever had. When this beloved young woman began to take off the binding of his eyes, she talked to him as follows: Mr. William, I am now taking the binding off, though, when I consider what I am doing, I tremble with the apprehension, that, though I have from my very childhood loved you, dark as you were, and though you had conceived so strong a love for me, yet you will find there is such a thing as beauty, which may ensnare you into a thousand passions of which you now are innocent, and take you from me for ever. But, before I put myself to that hazard, tell me in what manner that love you always professed to me entered into your heart; for its usual admission is at the eyes.' The young man answered, Dear Lidia, if I am, to lose by sight the soft pantings which I have always felt when I heard your voice; if I am no more to distinguish the step of her I love when she approaches me, but to change that sweet and frequent pleasure for such an amazement as I knew the little time I lately saw; or if I am to have any thing besides which may take from me the sense I have of what appeared most pleasing to me at that time, which ap parition it seems was you; pull out these eyes, before they lead me to be ungrateful to you, or undo myself. I wished for them but to see you; pull them out, if they are to make me forget you.' Lidia was extremely satisfied with these assurances; and pleased herself with playing with his perplexities. In all his talk to her, he showed but very faint ideas of any thing which had not been received at the ears; and closed his protestation to her, by saying, that if he were to see Valentia and Barcelona, whom he supposed the most esteemed of all women, by the quarrel there was about them, he would never like any but Lidia. ST. JAMES'S COFFEE-HOUSE, AUGUST 15. We have repeated advices of the entire defeat of the Swedish army near Pultowa, on the twenty-seventh of June O. S. and letters from Berlin give the following account of the remains of the Swedish army since the battle; prince Menzikoff, being ordered to pursue the victory, came up with the Swedish army, which was left to the command of general Lewenhaupt, on the thirtieth of June O. S. on the banks of the Boristhenes; whereupon he sent general Lewenhaupt a summons to submit himself to his present fortune: Lewenheupt immediately despatched three general officers to that prince, to treat about a capitulation; but the Swedes, though they consisted of fifteen thousand men, were in so great want of provision and ammunition, that they were obliged to surrender themselves at discretion. His Czarish majesty despatched an express to general Goltz, with an account of these particulars, and also with instructions to send out detachments of his cavalry, to prevent the king of Sweden's joining his army in Poland. That prince made his escape with a small party by swimming over the Boristhenes; and it was thought he designed to retire into Poland by the way of Volhinia. Advices from Bern of the eleventh instant say, that the general diet of the Helvetic body held at Baden concluded on the sixth; but the deputies of the six cantons, who are deputed to determine the affair of Tockenburg, continue their application to that business, notwithstanding some new difficulties started by the abbot of St. Gaul. Letters from Geneva of the ninth say, that the duke of Savoy's cavalry had joined count Thaun, as had also two imperial regiments of hussars; and that his royal highness's army was disposed in the following manner: the troops under the command of count Thaun are extended from Conflans to St. Peter D'Albigni. Small parties are left in several posts from thence to Little St. Bernard, to preserve the communication with Piedmont by the valley of Aosta. Some forces are also posted at Taloir, and in the castle of Doin, on each side of the lake of Anneci. General Rhebinder is encamped in the valley of Oulx with ten thousand foot and some detachments of horse: his troops are extended from Exilles to mount Genevre, so that he may easily penetrate into Dauphinè on the least motion of the enemy; but the duke of Berwick takes all necessary precautions to prevent such an enterprize. That general's head-quarters are at Francin; and he hath disposed his army in several parties, to preserve a communication with the Maurienne and Briançon. He hath no provisions for his army but from Savoy; Provence and Dauphinè being unable to supply him with necessaries. He left two regiments of dragoons at Annen, who suffered very much in the late action at Tessons, where they lost fifteen hundred, who were killed on the spot, four standards, and three hundred prisoners, among whom were forty officers. The last letters from the duke of Marlborough's camp at Orchies of the nineteenth instant advise, that monsier Ravignon being returned from the French court with an account that the king of France refused to ratify the capitulation for the surrender of the citadel of Tournay, the approaches have been carried on with great vigour and success; our miners have discovered several of the enemy's mines, who have sprung divers others, which did little execution; but, for the better security of the troops, both assaults are carried on by the cautious way of sapping. On the eighteenth, the confederate army made a general forage without any loss. Marshal Villars continues in his former camp, and applies himself with great diligence in casting up new lines behind the old on the Scarp. The duke of Marlborough and prince Eugene designed to begin a general review of the army on the twentieth. *** On a large slip of tobacco-paper, printed on both sides, there is an advertisement, of a general office for publishing and selling books and pamphlets, and circulating papers and advertisements, and for publishing and selling all sorts of wares, by a method never before made use of, by Mr. Povey, who employed a number of men to gather in letters, three nights per week, for the General Post-office; and to be employed at other times in crying and selling books, pamphlets, &c. His men to wear badges, and to be numbered, and to hawk no papers that were false or scandalous.-Harl. MSS. Bagford's Coll. 5979 No. 56. THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1709. Quicquid agunt homines— -nostri est farrago libelli. 'Whatever good is done, whatever ill— Juv. Sat. i. 85, 86. This is the first of some patriotic and excellent paper's, in which Steele laudibly employed his wit, in exposing the gamesters, sharpers, and swindlers of his time, with a view to guard his unwary countrymen from their snares, and to banish fraud and cozenage from the presence and conversation of gentlemen.' WHITE'S CHOCOLATE-HOUSE, AUGUST 17. THERE is a young foreigner committed to my care, who puzzles me extremely in the questions he asks about the persons of figure we meet in public places. He has but very little of our language, and therefore I am mightily at a loss to express to him things for which they have no word in that tongue to which he was born. It has been often my answer, upon his asking who such a fine gentleman is? that he is what we call a Sharper: and he wants my explication. I thought it would be very unjust to tell him, he is the same the French call Coquin; the Latins, Nebulo; or the Greeks, Párnan: for, as custom is the most powerful of all laws, and that the order of men we call Sharpers are received amongst us, not only with permission, but favour, I thought it unjust to use them like persons upon no establishment; besides that it would be an unpardonable dishonour to our country, to let him leave us with an opinion that our nobility and gentry keep company with common thieves and cheats: I told him, they were a sort of |