felf: he liftened-but, not again hearing it, he supposed that he had been deceived by the wind, sweeping through the branches of the old half-leaflefs trees, that were thinly scattered over the heath; he therefore proceeded: but, in a few minutes, again heard, very plainly, the noife of horsemen, advancing with great rapidity he once more halted, and favoured by the wind, and the ftilinefs which reigned around him, heard one of them fay to the other-" By'r lady, Walter, I with we were well out of this adventure: for if he fhould prove fuch a lion-hearted fellow, as I have been told he is, it may, perhaps, coft us fome broken bones, if even it fhould not turn out worfe?" Why, what a fool you are, Hugo!" re-joined the other, angrily. "Do you think that us two, well-armed, are not a match for him? It is very well that the baron does not hear you exprefs your childish fears; he would, certainly, fend you to keep company with the ghofts in the caverns of the caftle; but, on the other hand, do but think of the angels we shall get poffeffion of when we go back. Two hundred-think of that Hugo. Sweet, pretty creatures! how I long to be fingering of them. By St. Cuthbert, I fhould defire no better fport than to have fuch a commiffion every day. Faith, I would foon be as rich as the baron; and not a whit lefs honeft with it. But come, come, fpur on, he cannot be far before us; and the fooner we get through the bufinefs, the fooner we fhall get our reward. But, if we fhould lofe him through your fears, you may even go back to the caftie by yourfelf: for my part, I would as foon meet the devil as meet the baron, when he has been difappointed in one of his projects."

Fitzalan heard this myfterious difcourfe with a confiderable degree of anxiety: he was convinced that

* An ancient gold coin worth ten fhillings.

they

they were affaffins; and though he knew not why, yet ftill he was as firmly convinced, that he was the object of their purfuit. The affaffins were now fo near that they difcovered Fitzalan, and loudly called out to him to ftop. As Fitzalan difdained the leaft thought of flying from his enemies, even if flight would have been of any avail, he turned his horfe, and, in an angry tone, demanded the reason of their infolence." Ask no queftions of us," anfwered the ferocious Walter, "but furrender yourself our prifoner." "Slave," replied Fitzalan, inftantly drawing his fword, and advancing upon the ruffian, who was not backward in doing the fame. Fitzalan, at laft, difarmed his opponent; and, at the fame inftant, received a blow on the temple, from Hugo, who had stolen behind him, which stretched him fenfelefs on the ground.-On recovering from his trance, he found himself bound to the horse, his hands firmly faftened behind him, and the horfe led by the Two ruffians who had attacked him he repeatedly afked his conductors to what place they were conveying him, but he afked them in vain; they preferved the most profound filence. After having travelled across the heath above an hour, the faint beams of the waning moon fhowed, at fome diftance, the turrets of a caftle, which appeared, to Fitzalan, to be that of the baron Fitzurbar. He was right in his conjecture, it was the caftle of Fitzurban; and thither were the ruffians conveying him.-In a few minutes they reached it, and Walter having given the fignal, the draw-bridge was let down, and Fitzalan, Hugo, and Walter, entered the outer court. A band of armed men now appeared, and Fitzalan, difarmed, and faint with lofs of blood, finding it impoffible to make any effectual refiftance, fuffered himself to be taken off the horse and fettered. He was now led by Hugo and Walter, with their fwords drawn, into the inner court; and Walter, taking a key from his pocket, applied it to a door, the lock of which was rufty with age, and it was fome time beVOL. II.

fore

fore it could be made to open, but, at length, he fucceeded. He entered, followed by Fitzalan and Hugo, and defcended a number of fteps into a paffage of great length, damp, and noisome; from which many others branched forth at the end of this paffage, a maffy door, ftrongly bolted, prefented itself. Walter drew back the bolts, and unlocking the door, conducted Fitzalan into a dungeon of confiderable extent, and wet with unwhole fome vapours.-In one corner lay a bundle of ftraw, almoft rotten with age: "This, fir," faid Walter, pointing to it with a malignant fmile, “is your bed; I hope you will approve of it: we will leave you to your meditations; you will be but feldom difturbed, I promise you.'

Bafe, daftardly flave!" exclaimed Fitzalan, his eyes flashing with indignation. With a contemptuous fneer, Walter and his comrade now quitted the dungeon, and as they faftened the bolts, harth and rufty from the lapfe of years, Fitzalan felt his heart die within him. He flung himself on the bed of straw, in a ftate of mind nearly allied to phrenzy-a thousand tender recollections prefented themfelves to him, and every one of them atlied to render his prefent fituation more horrible: torn, for ever, from his Edith! from his Edwin! manacled in a dungeon, and, perhaps, on the verge of death; not a ray of hope illumined the dreary profpect before him." Gracious heaven!" he exclaimed, "if I had been doomed to fail in the fair face of day, on the field of glory, I had indeed been blest: but, to be thus immured and shackled! fated, too, to perish by the hand of fome vile affaffin, inglorious and unrevenged-thus to fall, and far from those -it is too much for mortal endurance." In exclamations like this, of mingled grief and indignation, Fitzalan gave utterance to his feelings. Yet, difaftrous as his prefent fituation was, the thought of the forrow which his Edith would fuffer from his lofs, gave him a thousand times more infufferable agony than the dan

gers

gers to which he was expofed. Walter and Hugo, after having fecured Fitzalan, proceeded to give the baron an account of the fuccefs of their miffion.

(To be continued.)

A CHARACTER

OF THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE,

(Never before published.)

On the Occafion of his celebrated Letter to the Duke of Bedford.

BY THE LATE RIGHT HON. W. G. HAMILTON

The reputed Author of the Letters of Junius.

DMUND Burke, not a foldier, but a politician of

E fortune, came over to this country with the lame

laudable views which actuate the vaft numbers of his countrymen who emigrate ; namely, to raise a fortune and a name,by the exercife of their talents and their industry. His own native merits were fuch as could scarce fail of diftinction in any country, leaft of all in this, where induftrious defert never miffes its reward. Befides, happily, the mauvaise honte is not numbered among the blemishes of the Irish character. Irishmen do not,

*He was usually denominated single-speech Hamilton; of which he was once put in mind by Mr. Bruce, when, on an infinuation of Mr. Hamilton's, "that it was highly improbable any man should make fuch fine drawings, as Mr. B. exhibited for his own, without ever being known to excel in defign;" Mr. Bruce faid-" Pray, fir, did you not once make a famous fpeech in the House of Commons?" "Yes, I did." "And pray, fir, did you ever make another?"" No, I did not." He died on the 16th day of August 1796, in his 69th year. ED.

C 2

ordinarily,

Mr.

ordinarily, hide their talents under a bufhel. Burke, without any disadvantageous profundity of genius, or (perhaps) integrity of character, poffeffed that which is fo rarely united in the fame man, the two-fold advantage of eloquence, both of the tongue and pen; of the latter, in a degree fuperior to any cotemporary. This is not the place to inquire into the phenomena of human intellect, or to attempt the solution of that difficult problem, how minds, of apparently the moft vigorous and extenfive caft, like that of Burke, and many others, should be totally incompetent to the task of difcrimination in certain cafes, and fo generally backward and defective in the comprehenfion of first principles.

Mr. Burke was, at no rate, of a difpofition to step one fingle degree without thofe facred bounds of reli gion, philofophy, or politics, prefcribed by the fchool in which he had been bred; and indeed within those bounds, he found ample fcope for his imagination to range in, fertile and extenfive as it was. His interest too, and that of the order to which he aspired to belong, would, no doubt, naturally strengthen his conviction. All history and experience taught him that the world ever had been governed by ariftocracy, which was fully fufficient to determine a man of his character and views, that it ever ought. His fortune first led him into the fervice of those who oppofed the American war. It was "but the twinkling of a star" that made him the friend of America. Had his intereft and his connections laid on the other fide, thofe who have reflected upon his fubfequent conduct, can feel no difficulty in convincing themfelves, that he would have been as violent an advocate for the American, as he has fince been for the French War. He was then young enough for his mind to have imbibed a tincture from the political company he kept. After all, though the friend and advocate of America, he, at the fame time, denied the juftice of that claim for which the Ameri- . cans fought; the happy predicament of many of the

political