EXPEDITION TO CENTRAL AMERICA.·

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CHIVALRY.

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days.

I would have wasted precious little time about | Murzuk, without indisposition, while nearly all note-writing. I'd have sent ships to smash his his people were more or less attacked by fever. city of piles, and when the rascal came back He boped to reach Kuka in fifty-five to sixty from robbing his neighors he should have found his own house in a blaze, and what's more, I would have said to the people he oppressed, 'Here's swords and guns, go it.' And I would have gone on, sinking his ships and burning his cities, and hanging his thieves until he fell down in his boots and begged for mercy, and paid all the costs, and I fancy he'd be glad to keep in his own place for the next fifty years."

From the circumstance that no news had come from Dr. Barth, there can be little doubt that this energetic traveller has continued his journey to Timbuctoo, and commenced the exploration of the middle course of the Kowara and the countries in that region, which are as yet unknown to Europeans. AUGUSTUS PETERMANN.

NEW ORDER OF CHIVALRY.- A new order of

chivalry has been established beyond the Rhine. The King of Bavaria, on the occasion of his last

Master Pam got quite excited, and made all the others excited also, and they began to hurry him; but he very much displeased Grandma by his violence, and she was going to read him a severe lecture, when the game was brought to a birth-day, founded a new order- an order of insudden end by the Bells dashing out into a full tellectual chivalry, to which the grandest celebchorus. So they all wished one another a hap-rities of the Fatherland, authors, artists, men of py new year, and Mr. Punch wishes you the

same.

From the Athenæum.

science and musicians - all who cultivate the arts of peace, who beautify life and ennoble society, are to become associated. Already a selection of the Forty has been made, and the list includes the names of all that is most renowned in GerTHE EXPEDITION TO CENTRAL AFRICA. man literature and culture. The order is entitled, The COMMUNICATIONS have been received from the Order of Maximilian the Second. Dr. Vogel up to the 11th of October last. At members of it bear the title of chevaliers or that date he was still in Murzuk, but the depar-knights. The decoration is composed of a cross ture thence was fixed for the next following day. in gold, enamelled in dark blue, with a white edge. He had unavoidably been obliged to stay upwards It is surrounded by a garland of laurel and oak, of two months at that place, on account of his travelling companion and protector, the brother of the Sultan of Bornu,- to whom as well as to other people in that part of the world, as Dr. Vogel says, the trite saying "time is money," is altogether unknown,- and who alone had caused the delay, although, when asked on their arriving at Murzuk, as to when they would depart, he gave the answer, "Tanwa, tanwa," "immediately, immediately."

and surmounted by a royal crown; at each of the corners are four rays, and in the centre in a crowned escutcheon is the effigy of the king, with the motto, "Maximilian II. King of Bavaria." On the other side is the symbol of the branch of science or of the fine arts to which the recipient belongs, whether he be a savant, a poet, or an artist. Here, then, is yet another instance be rewarded greatness which is not that of the of the inauguration of a method by which can Dr. Vogel has partly occupied his time at sword, and services which are not those of the cabinet or the battle-field. Here is an order Murzuk in reducing his various observations, the results of which have now been sent home; having intelligible meaning-its foundation and partly with exploring the surrounding coun- being laid on ideas now existing and now active. try. Among other things, he found some inter- The aversion which men of the pen express toesting tombs of great antiquity in the Wady wards the decorations which belong of prescripDjerma, near the village Khraik, about 100 tive right to the sword is founded in nature and English miles north of Murzuk. These tombs logic. To assume them would not merely be consisted of about fifty pyramids, mostly between to strut in borrowed feathers, but to admit six and eight feet high, and six to eight feet that their services and their attainments need a square at the bases, the sides corresponding pre-reflected light to set them off. The pride of cisely with the four quarters of the globe. Only fuses to indorse so absurd an admission. It is genius, of literature-of civil service-retwo of these pyramids were sixteen feet high. One of the pyramids was opened, and in the in- not true in fact: why should it be so in appearterior a carefully constructed tomb, five to six ance? The slow-paced genius of the English feet long, three feet wide and three feet high, was State is long in travelling to a logical conclusion: discovered with the skeleton of a child, apparently the "Order of Victoria"-a graceful and apten to twelve years of age, together with some propriate name for a chivalry created in the cause pearls and corals. Dr. Vogel tried to get to the in- of the Muses and in the interests of peaceterior of one of the larger pyramids; but from the waits for an auspicious moment. Meanwhile we continued breaking of the implements in demol- are content to chronicle the progress made ishing the walls, the people declared that it must abroad in carrying out a notion we have never be the tomb of a saint, the disturbance of which ceased to urge as one of the necessities of such would bring misfortune on their heads, and con- an age as that in which we live. sequently refused their assistance in the excavation.

The Belgian Chamber of Representatives have

It is gratifying to learn that Dr. Vogel has not in the least suffered from the climate, and has adopted a Bill on Patents, which fixes their dupassed the time at that most dangerous place, Iration at twenty years.

From Fraser's Magazine, Jan. 1854. THE FREIGHT OF THE JACOBINA.

only some strange rock, or the top of an old tower, that I saw over the headland, close down upon the sea? At all events, it seemed my only chance; so I took once more to the road, that promised to lead me nearer to it, whatever it might be.

WELL, cousin, after all, there is not much to tell. But since you wish it, you shall have my story. And I remember what happened to me fifty years ago far more clearly than the events The evening grew wilder and wilder; and as I of even last week; so you have at least one fail- rode onward I could see the foam flying in great ing of old age in your favor. white flakes over the rocks of that stern and In the spring of the year 1744, I was unex-iron-bound coast. I pushed on, until I had pectedly called home from Leyden, where I had passed the neck of the headland. A long valbeen studying for some time, by the sudden and ley lay before me, shut in with steep green hills alarming illness of my father. You know how on either side, but broadening towards the sea. matters then stood between us and France. In You know how, in the western counties, the ordinary times I should have travelled most homesteads are fairly hidden in the deep coombes, safely and speedily by taking my passage on board of one of the Dutch merchant ships, many of which put into our Cornish ports. But now there were hawks abroad; and as I had small fancy for the luxuries of a French cachot, I determined to cross at once to London, and then to take horse with a good pair of pistols at my holster.

So I did. And after half-a-dozen skirmishes with highwaymen, and as many accidents, owing to the villanous roads, I got nearly to the end of my journey with but a moderate proportion of bumps and bruises. I had still, however, more than one day's hard riding to get through before I could halt on Penderrick moor, and see the smoke of our old house rising up from its tall white chimneys. But I was now fairly in the West; and (since I had received letters in London, telling me of my father's slow recovery), I began to feel somewhat at home, and to enjoy the honest old Saxon of the peasantry, so delightful after the outlandish jabber of my friends the Hogan Mogans.

as they are called; so that you may look from a hill-top, and not see a single dwelling, although there may be twenty within hail. At the head of the valley, and close before me, I found a cluster of cottages. Over one there swung a sign. I looked and looked again. Yes, I could not be mistaken. There were our own Cornish choughs proper, displaying their red legs, within their border of bezants. But in the name of the three Kings of Cologne, what were they doing there?

Here was strange matter. For a moment I was fairly bewildered: but before the noise of my horse's hoofs had called out the inmates of the cottage, the solution of the mystery flashed across me. My father's elder brother-you never saw him, cousin if you had, you would scarcely have wondered at it, had long ceased to hold even ordinary communication with the rest of his family. There had been no open quarrel. But my uncle's disposition was totally unlike that of the others. They had taken different sides in politics and in religion: my uncle alone Well, I had been ali day in the saddle, clat- had kept to the old fiath, whilst his brothers had tering down steep hill roads, covered with stones, become members of the Reformed Church. Nor little better than the beds of to.rents, and clam- was this all. He had married a lady of high bering up again, only, as it seemed, for the plea- rank, and of unblemished Norman descent, who sure of once more descending, and was looking looked down with pretty considerable contempt forward to the comforts of mine inn, such as inn upon the members of her husband's family, notcomforts were in those days, when at last I sur- withstanding their three choughs. So, when I mounted a hill more like the roof of a house came home from Leyden, I had never seen my than any of its brethren, and was rewarded-by uncle, and had never visited the old house over a glorious prospect indeed for there lay the whose turrets my ancestors' flag had floated for so sea-coast with its white beaches, and its ranges many generations. But I had heard enough of it. of gray cliffs rising above them, and there lay Often and often I had been told of its corridors wooded valley and glistening spring-field; but and vaults, its winding stairs and its dungeons; where was the little village with its old-fashioned and it was with a strange mixture of feelings hostelry? Although I looked carefully enough, that I now found myself within half a mile of I could discover no sign of habitation, except it. That was the western turret I had seen above the roofs of two or three farms rising up between the headland. the trees; and these were at a great distance, and in the wrong direction. What should I do, for the evening was not only rapidly closing, but threatened to set in with storm and rain?

The road wound over a patch of wild moor; and I spurred my horse up over the heather in the hope of finding some one who might direct me, or of discovering the inn itself. No. The fields were as lifeless and as deserted as a Dutch morass; there was no creature within sight, and not even a farm-house visible. Far and wide the coast spread out, indented with narrow bays, and stretching its grim craggy headlands into the foaming waste of waters. At last- was it

Of this, however, I was not made certain, at once. I heard a running to and fro in the cottage. "There he comes at last," said a voice. "Ay, ay, the captain will be mortal glad; and presently out poured landlord and landlady, and half-a-dozen country fellows, who had been drinking in the tap-room.

"Lord, sir," said mine host," the Captain has been down at the Castle these three hours. Here has been a power of messengers after you. But your honor will, no doubt, choose a glass of ale before you go down."

I saw that he mistook me for some expected guest, but I did not care to undeceive him, until

I found myself in the little parlor of the inn, | found about so large and important a mansion, and then it proved a difficult matter. "Your the plashing of the waves on the shore beyond, honor need not be so close with me," he said. "I and then the undefined feeling of my own conknow," and he gave me a confidential wink. nection with the place, all this combined to in"But as your honor pleases. Here is your good fluence me strangely, and made me look forward health, and wishing ;" and mine host wink- with something like dread to the meeting with ed again. my unknown relatives. But I had no time to indulge in any such fancies. The great doors were opened, withou tdelay, and a whole army of servants stood there, waiting to receive me. After all, my uncle had a certain respect for every scion of the three choughs.

A few minutes told me where I was, and how near to the old house of my ancestors. In youth we take little note of family coldnesses. Unless the brawl has been an active one, and carried out with cut and thrust fighting, on either side, we can scarcely understand the feeling that keeps Within there was the same stillness. A grave relatives apart, and take, in consequence, little and solemn looking domestic led me through a note of it. Accordingly, although I knew there long gallery, hung with faded tapestry, and, at had been no intercourse for many years between last, ushered me into a lofty and spacious apartCardiness Castle and our own branch of the ment, imperfectly lighted by tall candlesticks of family, I let my curiosity have its own way, and silver, ranged between the many windows, and despatched a note, in which I said that, finding by the half-burnt logs that smouldered upon the myself accidentally in the neighborhood, I de- hearth. The ceiling richly carved in dark oak, sired to pay my respects to the head of our heavily falling hangings, whose once bright roses house. In about half an hour I received a pack- and lilies had faded into one uniform tint of et, looking like a ministerial despatch, the seal sombre gray,-clumsy furniture, that might of which exhibited three choughs, honorably have been as old as the house itself, and, at quartered with the stars and chevrons of the the further end, grand beauffets, laden with Norman heiress. These were the contents:

"DR. NEPHEW,-I could have wished that your visit to this house had occurred at a more favorable season. But I thank God I have never been wanting in my duty, whatever may be the case with others. I shall receive you, therefore, as you desire. Pray come down at once. - Yrs., dr. nephew,

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This was cold enough. But what cared I? I determined to go, and to see a place and people I might never again have a chance of visiting. So mine host, notwithstanding his annoyance at finding himself excluded from all confidence, despatched a guide, to show me the nearest way to the castle.

It was still wild and stormy, but the moon was struggling through masses of broken cloud, and, by her light, after riding for some way down the valley, I saw, at last, the strange old turreted mansion, rising up darkly against its background of gray sea. How the stories of the chances it had gone through, of the sieges it had sustained, of its many perils by flood and by fire, came across me, with that first glimpse! It had been built toward the middle of the fifteenth century, when this coast was exposed to the ravages of French pirates, always ready to commence their depredations on the first signal of war, and very often without it. Hence it had been built with more regard to defence and protection than was usual at that time. A lofty outer wall, with battlements and watch-turrets, at the angles, surrounded it entirely, and enclosed an ample court, within which stood the house itself, pierced with narrow windows, and strange fantastically formed openings, for hurling missiles, in case of assault. All was dark, except a long range of windows on the right; and, even from them, so deep were their embrasures, the rays fell but feebly upon the tall black walls of the court-yard.

Light-hearted as I was, I confess to a strange indescribable feeling, that stole over me, as I looked around. The unusual form of the building, the absence of all the bustle that is generally

quaintly-formed vessels of gold and silver: altogether the apartment had an air of gloomy magnificence, well in keeping with the rows of stately portraits that looked down from its walls, But to this I gave a single glance. Two persons only sat there: my uncle himself, who rose to receive me, from his chair by the wide-arched chimney, and a lady, whom I concluded to be his wife, a tall and somewhat austere looking personage, in black velvet, who was sitting opposite him, and who did not rise on my entrance.

"Nephew," said my uncle, as he took my hand, formally enough, as I thought," these doors have never been closed to any of our family, who desire to enter them, and, whilst I live, they never shall be. You are welcome, although your visit may chance to prove inconvenient. Lady Mar garet, this is my brother's only son."

But Lady Margaret's cold gray eyes were bent perseveringly on the ground. There was an awkward silence. At last she looked up sharply. "Sir John, Sir John," she said, "I have warned you. Take the consequences. Young man, I am sorry to see you here, for your own sake as well as for that of others. If you take my advice you will lose no time in leaving this house."

I began to think myself de trop indeed.

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My visit," I said, "seems to give more trouble than I anticipated. Perhaps I had better follow your ladyship's advice, and close it at once."

But my uncle laid his hand on my arm. "Your ladyship forgets," he said, "however illtimed his coming, my nephew has a right to such hospitality as this house can afford. Martin," he said to a servant who entered, "I expect a strange gentleman to-night; show him here at once, and let supper be served as soon as he comes. And now, nephew, be seated, and tell me what is doing at Leyden."

So my uncle asked grave questions about the professors, and the politics and the students, and half a hundred other things, to all which I replied as well as my wandering thoughts would

allow me. For, although I tried to be a judicious | came here. Ah, Sir John, you are a happy man, listener, I caught myself more than once speculating on the old portraits hanging on the walls, and tracing a resemblance between their long, pale faces and that of my uncle -to say nothing of my own.

"My dear sir," said Mr. Staunton-"my dear And there was some truth in what her ladyship Lady Margaret-one would think I had never said, for I had just discovered a portrait whose known you till to-night. But well, well-let us history I knew full well,-that of Gwenthian, to supper, for I see the doors are opened. And, the White Hand, an unhappy daughter of our to tell truth, as Gay says, Is n't it Gay? house, whose story formed one of its principal legends. The picture had been too often described to me to be mistaken, although I saw it for the first time.

"Ah," said Mr. Staunton, laying down his Flemish glass with a sigh, "your reverence is right. Yes, Sir John, yes; I saw the Captain, and he looks put poorly- but poorly. Give me "I beg pardon," he said, "for keeping you the little Jacobina: I would n't exchange her waiting, as I presume I have done; but they told and her cargo; no, sir, not if the Captain would me at the inn yonder, that Captain Van Meerelt make me his right-hand man to-morrow. And, was so impatient, so anxious to get off the Jaco-by-the-bye, Sir John, what a snug harbor that is bina, that I just went down to the vessel before I of yours, and how well the vessel is lying. Van

Mecrelt tells me he will have no trouble - no trouble at all. Everything is easy. What is that before your reverence? a Devonshire pic! Ah! I will trouble you for some. Thank you, thank you."

It is a dish," said Sir John, with solemnity, "that has been a great favorite of mine ever since I learnt from a friend who had been spending some time in Rome, that his that the that a most illustrious personage who is just now resident there, manifests a great fondness for it, and directs its frequent appearance at his table.* Yes, young man," continued Sir John, turning you can have no difficulty in understanding to whom I allude, though I fear Leyden has scarcely increased your respect for birth and dignity."

to me,

"Unless," said the chaplain, with a sneer, "both are as prosperous as a Batavian merchant. Is your nephew fresh from Leyden, Sir John?" I left it not many days since," I said. "But you mistake greatly if you imagine that all our Dutch friends are insensible to the claims of fallen dignity. Only a month ago, the authorities at the Hague discovered a wide-spread Jacobite correspondence among their own people

"Had you heard of this, Mr. Staunton ?" said Sir John, stopping me, hastily.

"My dear sir," replied Mr. Staunton, with his mouth full of Devonshire pie, "I had heard – yes, yes, I had heard. - a mere quite" but all at once he caught the chaplain's eye fixed on him with a warning glance, and I saw it too. "A mere fancy of the wise Dutchmen," he continued, carelessly, "as I believe; but, of course, a most serious affair-a most dangerous matter if it turn out to be real."

"From what I heard, I have no doubt of it," I said; "there were letters

show you your room; and so good night; sleep soundly under your forefathers' roof. Yet stay, a word in your ear: If times should change, remember-the old faith- the old trusts - and you have a friend at Cardiness."

Lady Margaret had disappeared while my uncle was speaking, and as he bowed me from the room, I followed Martin, who, with a pair of candles that would have done honor to the shrine of a Romish saint, led the way to my apartment. As we passed through the room in which I had been received, however, I made him stop for a moment under the picture of Gwenthian the White Hand. Her legend had been haunting me ever since I had first recognized those pale, sad, yet most beautiful features. She was drawn in a dress of dark hue, touched here and there with gold, after the fashion of the early painters. In her hand she held a chaplet of beads, and the background showed a wild forest scene, closed in with distant rocky mountains. The skill of the Gothic artist had not been great, but he had, nevertheless, succeeded in portraying a countenance of a beauty so peculiar and so fascinating, that I no longer wondered at the prominence which had been assigned to the Lady Gwenthian among the legends of our house. The White Hand-she deserved the name, if the painter had been truthful; and besides, she had an hereditary claim to it. Down among the roots of our family tree reposes the shield of Yseult aux Blanches Mains, the wife of King Mark of Cornwall. But Sir Tristram's belle amie could scarcely have been fairer than her descendant, nor was her story a sadder one.

So I followed Martin through the long narrow passages, and up the winding turret stairs, half expecting to see the Lady of the White Hand emerge from one of the arched doorways, and float on before us through the gloom. The apart

I told Van Meerelt," said Mr. Staunton, ris-ment to which I was conducted was low, and ing, that I would see him again to-night- panelled with dark oak; at one end a narrow Lady Margaret, will you permit me? Duty, you folding door, latticed with arabesque carving, know, duty. And may I ask your reverence," opened into a long gallery hung with dark green turning to the chaplain," to give me your atten-arras. This I explored when Martin had left me, tion for five minutes? there are some few matters connected with the ship-some very trifling yet necessary matters touching the unloading of the books Van Meerelt has brought for your reverence, on which I should wish to consult you. It grows late, I see. Will your ladyship excuse us |

at once?"

"And high time, I think, Mr. Staunton," said Lady Margaret, with a glance at me; "I hope you have not delayed here too long; but Sir John knows best."

"Mr. Staunton must be in time as yet," said Sir John. "But it is late, and you must be tired, nephew, after your long day's ride. Martin will

* Sir John had not been altogether misinformed. "There is every day a regular table of ten or twelve covers, well served, into which some of the qualified persons of his court, or travellers, are invited. It is supplied with English and French cookery, French and Italian wines; but I took notice that the Pretender ate only of the English dishes, and made his dinner of roast beef and what we call Devonshire Pie."-Letter from an English traveller at Rome, 1721, printed in the Miscellany of the Spottiswoode Club.

and then, stirring the logs on the hearth into a bright blaze, I sat down before them, and allowed my fancy to wander at its own free will.

Scarcely conscious of the present, my thoughts returned to the story of Gwenthian. A Breton knight, so it ran,—had been wrecked on our wild coast, not far from Cardiness Castle. There he was received, and there he remained for some time; long enough to love the Lady Gwenthian, and to be loved again. But then came the old story. The Lord of Cardiness had served under the great Talbot, and had witnessed the execution of Joan of Arc. There was no chance of his smiling on the lovers. And the French knight had scarcely regained his own country, when Gwenthian was called upon to give her hand to the son of a neighboring baron.

However, fate had not willed that the choughs should be so quartered. The lovers were still able to communicate by means of the fishermen and merchants who frequented the coast, and they laid their plans accordingly. Gwenthian fell ill, and became gradually worse. At last her old nurse sought her father, and with many tears told him that his daughter was dying, and prayed