6 plight moved compassion, and as we had money we were not suspec ted-people only suspect the poor. Here we soon recovered our fatigues, rigged ourselves out, gaily, and your humble servant was considered as noble a captain as ever walked deck. But now, alas, my fate would have it that I should fall in love with a silk-mercer's daughter. Ah, how I loved her!-the pretty Clara! Yes, I loved her so well, that I was seized with horror at my past life! I resolved to repent, to marry her, and settle down into an honest man. Accordingly, I summoned my messmates, told them my resolution, resigned my command, and persuaded them to depart. They were good fellows; engaged with a Dutchman, against whom I heard af terwards they made a successful mutiny, but I never saw them more. I had two thousand crowns still left; with this sum I obtained the consent of the silk-mercer, and it was agreed that I should become a partner in the firm. I need not say that no one suspected that I had been so great a man, and I passed for a Neapolitan goldsmith's son instead of a cardinal's. I was very happy then, Signor, very✅ I could not have harmed a fly! Had I married Clara, I had been as gentle a mercer as ever handled a measure.' The bravo paused a moment, and it was easy to see that he felt more than his words and tone betokened. Well, well, we must not look back on the past too earnestly-the sunlight upon it makes one's eyes water. The day was fixed for our wedding it approached. On the evening before the appointed day, Clara, her mother, her little sister, and myself, were walking by the port, and as we looked on the sea,' I was telling them old gossip-tales of mermaids and sea-serpents, when a red-faced, bottle-nosed Frenchman clapped himself right before me, and placing his spectacles very deliberately astride his proboscis, echoed out, Sacré mille tonnerres! this is the damned pirate who boarded the Niobé! None of your jests,' said I, mildly.—'Ho, ho,' said he; I can't be mistaken; help there!' and he griped me by the collar. I replied as you may suppose, by laying him in the kennel; but it would not do. The French captain had a French lieutenant at his back, whose memory was as good as his chiefs. A crowd assembled; other sailors came up; the odds were against me. I slept that night in prison; and in a few weeks afterwards, I was sent to the galleys. They spared my life, because the old Frenchman politely averred that I had made my crew spare his. You may believe that the oar and the chain were not to my taste. I, and two others, escaped, they took to the road, and have, no doubt, been long since broken on the wheel. I, soft soul, would not commit another crime to gain my bread, for Clara was still at my heart with her eyes; so, limiting my rogueries to the theft of a beggar's rags, which I compensated by leaving him my galley attire instead, I begged my way to the town where I left Clara. It was a clear winter's day when I approached the outskirts of the town. I had no fear of detection, for my beard and hair were as good as a mask. Oh Mother of Mercy! there came across my way a funeral procession!!!! There, now you know it; I can tell you no more. She had died, perhaps of love; more likely of shame. Can you guess how I spent that night?-I stole a pickaxe from a mason's shed, and all alone and unseen, under the frosty heavens, I dug the fresh mould from the grave; I lifted the coffin, I wrenched the lid, I saw her again—again! Decay had not touched her. She was always pale in life! I could have sworn she lived! It was a blessed thing to see her once more, and all alone too! But then, at dawn to give her back to the earth-to close the lid, to throw down the mould, to hear the pebbles rattle on the coffin-that was dreadful! Signor, I never knew before, and I don't wish to think now, how valuable a thing human life is. At sunrise I was again a wanderer; but now that my Clara was gone, my scruples vanished, and again I was at war with my betters. I contrived at last, at O- -, to get on board a vessel bound to Leghorn, working out my passage. From Leghorn I went to Rome, and stationed myself at the door of the cardinal's palace. Out he came, his gilded coach at the gate. 'Ho, father!' said I; don't you know me?'-Who are you?'-' Your son,' said 1, in a whisper. The cardinal drew back, looked at me earnestly, and mused a moment. All men are my sons,' quoth he then, very mildly, there is gold for thee! To him who begs once, alms are due; to him who begs twice, jails are open. Take the hint, and molest me no more. Heaven bless thee!' With that he got into his coach and drove off to the Vatican. His purse which he had left behind was well supplied. I was grateful and contented, and took my way to Terracina. I had not long passed the marshes, when I saw two horsemen approach at a canter. You look poor, friend,' said one of them, halting; yet you are strong.'- Poor men and strong are both serviceable and dangerous, Signor Cavalier.''Well said; follow us,' I obeyed, and became a bandit. I rose by degrees; and I have always been mild in my calling, and have taken purses without cutting throats, I bear an excellent character, and can eat my macaroni in Naples without any danger to life and limb. For the last two years I have settled in these parts, where I hold sway, and where I have purchased land. I am called a farmer, Signor; and I myself now only rob for amusement, and to keep my hand in. I trust I have satisfied your curiosity. We are within a hundred yards of the castle.» We had marked one or two portraits of the French Terrorists; but we have already given more space to the book than our readers may approve. The very attempt at originality, however, claims a certain respect and attention how much the more, when made by one standing so high as Sir E. L. : Bulwer! It is singular, that so many of the first writers of our time should, in the course of their career, pass through a phase of imaginative creation, alike bewildering to them+ selves and their friends. We shall be delighted to welcome back the author of 'Rienzi' into the light of common day, from behind the seven veils," where he has been pleased to hide himself. Let him, however, leave the style of Zanoni,' with its ill-defined purpose, in his future fictions. All the vices of his former works are here, with one exception, conceit. Slovenly expressions, idle interjections, and inflated attempts at poetical diction, abound. We miss, however, the direct and personal egotism which laid bare to us the man, the novelist, and the politician, in so many of Sir E. L. Bulwer's former tales. The omission is most welcome. ARIANA ANTIQUA, A DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE ANTIQUITIES AND COINS OF AFGHANISTAN. By H. H. Wilson, Esq., Professor of Sanscrit, &c. Printed for the Hon. East India Company. Recent events have directed a large share of public attention to the countries lying between Persia and India, which Mr. Wilson includes under the general name of Ariana. The English armies, however, are not the first Europeans that have appeared as invaders in Afghanistan: more than two thousand years ago, Alexander the Great opened through these lands a highway for commerce and civilization, which was broken up by his premature death, and has ever since continued closed. Brief, however, as was the great conqueror's career, abundant evidence is collected in this volume to prove that the Greek influence which he established was far wider in its extent and more permanent in its duration than the classical writers had led us to suppose. The monarchs of the Bactrian kingdom, though cut off by the Parthians from all intercourse with Europe, continued to use the Greek language on their coins, and in all probability, in their courts; they preserved the symbols of the Hellenic mythology, and consequently some portion of its ritual; they seem to have favoured the study of Greek literature and philosophy, until the invasion of barbarians, the cessation of communications with Europe, and the Various vicissitudes to which oriental empires are subject, gradually obliterated all distinctive marks of their European origin.noWe must content ourselves with directing attention to the fact, that Greek elements have unquestionably contributed to the formation of Indian civilization, a fact which seems to strengthen the doubts which Dr. Wall has raised respecting the originality of the Sanscrit language and literature; and we may add, that the localities in which the coins we are about to notice have been found, afford some additional evidence in favour of Col. Sykes's theory, that Buddhism is a more ancient system, than Brahminism. The volume before us affords materials for elucidating, though not for deciding, these interesting questions; and we only refer to them for the purpose of showing that it is not merely an important accession to Indian Numismatics, but to the General History of the East. Most of the antiquities and coins described in this work were collected by Mr. Masson, who having been so fortunate as to obtain favourable opportunities for examining those curious monuments called the topes of Afghanistan, availed himself of them with remarkable perseverance and intelligence: A tope is, or has been, a circular building of stone, or brick faced with stone or stucco, erected on a platform which has been built upon either a natural or artificial elevation. It is distinguished, according to Mr. Masson, from a tumulus by having a distinct cylindrical body interposed between a circular basement and a hemispherical cupola. This is, no doubt, the case, at Sarnath, and in most of the topes of Afghanistan. In the great Tope of Manikyala, however, the perpendicular part between the basement and dome scarcely constituted a perceptible division. At Bhilsa, Amaravati, and still more in Ceylon, time, vegetation, and decay have effaced these distinctions, and the tope occurs as a mound rising conically from an irregularly circular base. Steps usually lead up to the basement of the building or the platform on which it stands. It seems not unlikely that the cupola was crowned by a spire. Such embellishments usually terminate temples in Budhist countries, to which these topes are considered analogous, as well as the dahgopas, which present other analogies. They are also found on what may be con sidered miniature representations of the topes, which have been dis covered within them; and the Ceylon topes have evidently been thus terminated. Traces of spires are visible on the summits of the great mounds of Abhayagiri and Jaita-wana. The dimensions of the topes vary considerably. Many of those in Afghanistan are small, and the largest are not of great size: the circumference of few of them at the base exceeds one hundred and fifty feet; and their elevation apparently does not often reach sixty.» The interior of the topes is generally filled up with stones, rough or hewn, or with bricks cemented more or less compactly by lime or earth; but in some of them small square chambers have been discovered. This, however, is rare the general principle of their structure in Afghanistan is the in closure of a tope within a tope, both solid, but having a well-defined line of separation, and the smaller tope having a little chamber or space in which relics were probably depo→ sited: Many of the topes have yielded no return to the labour expend ed upon them; others have been rich in relics. It is a curious circumstance, noticed by Mr. Masson, that where those substances which appear to be the remains of a funeral pile, as ashes and animal exuviæ, most abound, the relics of antiquity are least abundant. The most conspicuous objects are, in general, vessels of stone or metal; they are of various shapes and sizes; some of them have been fabricated on a lathe. They commonly contain a silver box or casket; and within that, or sometimes by itself, a casket of gold. This is sometimes curiously wrought. One found by Mr. Masson at Deh Bimaran is chased with a double series of four figures representing Gautama in the act of preaching; a mendicant is on his right, a lay-follower on his left, and behind the latter a female disciple; they stand under arched niches resting on pillars, and between the arches is a bird: a row of rubies is set round the upper and lower edge of the vessel, and the bottom is also chased with the leaves of the lotus: the vase had no cover. Within these vessels, or sometimes in the cell in which they are placed, are found small pearls, gold buttons, gold ornaments and rings, beads, pieces of white and coloured glass and crystal, pieces of clay or stone with impres sions of figures, bits of bone, and teeth of animals, of the ass and goat species, pieces of cloth, and folds of the Tuz or Bhurj leaf, or rather the bark of a kind of birch on which the Hindus fórmerly wrote; and these pieces bear sometimes characters which may be termed Bactrian, but they are in too fragile and decayed a state to admit of being unfolded or read. Similar characters are also found superficially scratched upon the stone, or dotted upon the metal VOL. II. 37 |