"Her figure is striking and good," says Madame Hommaire de Hell-" at least as far as I could judge through the surrounding folds of numberless garments. Her finely-chiseled mouth opens upon two rows of perfect pearls ; her face is full of sweetness; and these advantages, with a complexion somewhat bronzed, though of remarkable delicacy, would, even in a Parisian salon, constitute a very pretty woman, if the general shape of her countenance and the moulding of her features were but a little less Calmuc. Still, in spite of the obliquity of her eyes and the prominence of her cheek-bones, she would find more than one admirer in many a European capital. Her look, in particular, expresses great goodness of heart, and, like all the women of her race, she wears a gentle aspect of humility, which renders her only the more engaging.

"And now for her dress. She is robed in richest Persian, which is covered with silver-lace and a tunic of soft silk, descending only as far as the knees, and opening in front. Every seam is hidden with broideries of silver and fine pearl. She has round her neck a white cambric handkerchief, clasped with a diamond button; on the back of her head is placed a coquettish little yellow cap, bordered with fur; but what surprised me most was an embroidered cambric pocket-handkerchief and a pair of black mittens.

"Thus is it that the produce of our industry creeps even into the toilet of a great Calmuc lady. Amongst the ornaments of the princess, I must not forget to mention a large gold chain, which, after interweaving with her beautiful tresses, and falling on her bosom, was linked up again, on either side, to ear-rings of the same metal."

Half an hour has now elapsed. There is a pause; and we are just congratulating ourselves on the dance being over, when the first Esmeralda touches a companion on the shoulder, and this new actor prolongs the pantomime.

Another half-hour elapses. The Armenian interpreter begs his mistress to permit her daughter, who hangs back concealed behind a neighboring curtain, to give us a sample of her powers; but there is a difficulty in the way. Although the Calmucs have as yet no published copy of Hints on Etiquette, custom and tradition have formed a little code of their own. Herein we learn, that when one lady is dancing, she

VOL. XXXIX.—NO. IV.

cannot invite another, viva voce, to take her place, but must touch her on the shoulder, as a signal of her wishes.

"Well, and what of that ?" you will say; "cannot Esmeralda touch the princess's daughter on the shoulder ?" By no means. It would be the grossest violation of Calmuc etiquette possible. No woman in attendance on the sister-in-law of Prince Tumen is permitted such familiarities; hence the difficulty of the position.

But the Armenian is a man of ready invention. He darts forth into the centre of the circle, and performs such an original series of antics, as to call forth the applause of every one. Then directing his steps towards the curtain by which the young girl is hid from vulgar view, he lays his finger lightly on her shoulder, and his aim is won. Forth comes the maidenpretty, languishing, timid-and in her turn communicates the magic touch to her brother. The latter is a youth of some fifteen years of age, who, dressed à la Cossaque, seems very loath to add to the nationality of the dance by donning the Calmuc cap. Twice he throws it on the ground, but twice resumes it, at the bidding of his mother.

All things, however, in this world must have an end, and so must our interview with the Calmuc princess. On our return to the palace, we are attracted by a taboun or enclosure for wild horses. Five or six cavaliers are waiting our approach, ready with their long slings to dart amidst the fiery steeds, and catch any one we may select. At a given signal, they rush upon their victims, and in an instant, a young horse, with flashing eyes and dilated nostrils, is trapped in the fearful snare ; maddened with terror, it snorts and writhes through every limb. A Calmuc, who follows on foot, vaults upon its back, cuts away the the sling which covers its head, and commences a struggle of unexampled daring and agility. Now horse and rider roll together on the ground, now dart like a flash of lightning through the cloven. winds, or stop as on the verge of a sudden precipice; in a moment the horse flings itself on the earth, or rears and tosses in an agony of rage, then, dashing over the open area with terrible leaps and bounds, tries to throw off its unwonted burden.

But in vain. Supple as a tiger, and bold as a lion, the Calmuc flings himself into the passions of his courser-follows every impetus, and yields with every strain. While

32

But we must leave this spectacle. The day is closing in, and a splendid banquet awaits us at the palace. The delicacies of

So lives Prince Tumen, the worshipper of the Grand Lama, and the believer in the doctrine of metempsychosis.

PRISON life was not formerly as it is now. When Col. Chesterton was appointed governor of Cold Bath Fields-the largest prison in the world, numbering within its walls a daily average of 1400 souls-men and women, boys and girls, were indiscriminately herded together, without employment or wholesome control; while smoking, gaming, singing, and every species of brutalizing conversation and demeanor, tended to the unlimited advancement of crime and pollution. The governor of that day walked about, bearing in his hand a knotted rope, with which he could inflict summary chastisement. Moral influences were quite unthought of. The functionaries were all corrupt, the yardsmen were such prisoners as could afford to bid the highest price for acting as deputy-turnkeys. There was, indeed, no restraint upon the will and wishes of those who had money. From one end of the prison to the other there existed a vast illicit commerce at an exorbitant rate of profit. The poor and friendless man, on the other hand, was wretchedly maltreated and oppressed. Nor was this all.

LIFE.*

"Within a short period of the exercise of my new authority, (Col. Chesterton relates,) private intelligence conveyed to me the startling fact, favored portions of the male and female prisoners that a well-planned system had long enabled daily to meet together in one of the roofs of the building, and I was furnished with a clue to the discovery of the whole contrivance, and the exact hour of the rendezvous. This clandestine arrangement was consequently, one afternoon, suddenly disturbed by my unlooked-for presence, supported by a few officials, who dared not full extent of this iniquity stood thus divulged. disobey the direction to accompany me. The men fled with precipitate haste; but Mary Barry, and a woman named Christmas, were caught in the very act of descending from a trapdoor, which opened to the roof; and the consternation occasioned by this discovery became perfectly electric.

The

"A close examination of the means adopted to insure this unlawful meeting disclosed a very simple solution. The female wards, as I have already described, were merely portions of the main building imperfectly fenced off from the males' department. The roof in question ran longitudinally over both compartments. It was accessible by an iron grating on the males' side, which had once been soldered down, but was now removable at pleasure; and, on the other

side, by the trap-door I have named, which had to be reached by standing on an iron balustrade, and then climbing two or three feet up a perpen

was easily upraised.

"Here, then, was revealed another infamous

source of profit to this immaculate prison staff, of both sexes. It at once threw a light upon a delicate investigation of a few preceding years, when, in order to cloak a monstrous dereliction of duty, and to screen the real delinquents, a story was trumped up, which nearly ruined the character of a most respectable man, then clerk to the prison."

It was no slight task to undertake to reform this state of things, and to cleanse such an Augean stable. Col. Chesterton was, however, aided in his plans by a prisoner of the name of Thompson or Mozley, who had been an officer in the Indian army, and had reduced himself to beggary by gaming, and, at length, to the utmost destitution by drink-the result of despair. Amid his complicated faults and misfortunes, this person still retained many of the refined feelings of a gentleman, and Col. Chesterton made him his confidant. He was also aided by the appointment of a pensioned sergeant as chief turnkey. The relations established between the governor and the prisoner Thompson did not, however, escape the other prisoners, whose jealousies it naturally excited, and they soon found a means of punishing the offending spy.

Many days had not elapsed, ere one evening loud cries were heard to issue from a room containing some thirty prisoners. I chanced to be in the garden, contiguous to the scene of disorder, and hearing cries of distress, I summoned to my aid a few officers, and rushed to ascertain the cause. No sooner was the door opened than there stood Thompson, trembling with terror, and dripping with perspiration. Missiles of various kinds had been hurled at him from all parts of the room, and he became in dread of losing his life. Preconcert was manifest in this outrage, for each assailant, as he suddenly started up and threw, as suddenly lay down, and no one aggressor could be recognized. The coolest effrontery was exhibited in the general denial, and the entire clique would fain have cajoled me by the assurance that Thompson's excited brain must have conjured up an imaginary scene of violence.

"He, however, assured me he had not slept, and that no sort of deception had lurked beneath his apprehensions, for they were too well founded. Certain it is, I never saw a creature more overpowered by affright, and he was withdrawn from the room more dead than alive; nor do I think he ever quite recovered his composure during his after abode in the prison."

The spirit of revenge was not only aroused against his ally, but against the governor himself, for the reforms that he

was introducing in prison discipline. Anonymous letters, breathing vengeance against him, poured thickly in, and although they did not deter him from his fixed purpose, they awakened both anxiety and alarm for his personal safety. He was obliged to carry loaded pistols in his pocket by day, and he slept with the same weapons beside him at night. He never left the outer gate, or returned to it, without a careful reconnaissance of every person or object near it. His position was truly one fraught with labor, care, and peril..

The same reforming spirit so curtailed the stealthy comforts of the incarcerated, or fenced their attainment about with obstacles, that the increased irksomeness of confinement suggested, amongst other remedies, besides the destruction of the governor, various plans of escape. It was after a baffled attempt of this kind that Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer visited the establishment.

he inquired if I had ever had an escape? I answered, 'No,' but appeared to delight him by the information that we had recently frustrated a well-conceived plot, for he seemed eagerly to catch at my words, and anxiously asked for the particulars. I conducted him to the very yard, showed the track of the now concealed water-pipe, and thence took him to various spots, and confided to him the whole details of the design. He seemed to take a special interest in the development of the scheme; nor had I the least idea of the use to which my exposition was ere long to be con

"In the course of our walk through the wards,

verted.

"On taking his leave, Sir Edward charitably presented me with 57., which he begged might be distributed amongst a few poor but deserving prisoners on their discharge. Now, if the reader will take the pains to refer to the interesting novel of 'Paul Clifford,' he will there perceive how the artifices of my impatient flock have been enriched by description, and adapted to the requirements of a tale of fiction."

It was not a little singular that it sometimes happened to Col. Chesterton to have acquaintances under his charge. He says that it was not an uncommon thing for gentlemen jocularly to implore his clemency in the event of their being forcibly compelled to become his guests; and with the smiles which such badinage has created, he says he has been constrained by experience to admonish many that such a contingency was not altogether impossible!